Deficit seen in American acting compared to British

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There are many rural areas in America where broadband is simply not available.

I have two mostly unrelated responses to the original premise of this thread.

1.) It should be no surprise to find greatly more British actors in the US than vice versa. The simplest reason is immigration policy. As I understand it, it is very easy for a citizen of any country in either the British Commonwealth or the European Union to decide to go to the UK and seek employment. That represents a total population of about 2.8 billion people (I have made certain to not count the population of the UK twice!). In contrast, there is almost no country to which a US citizen can easy move and legally seek employment apart from possibly Puerto Rico (if they fluently speak and understand Puerto Rican Spanish). Otherwise I'm certain there would be far more Americans working as actors in the UK and the "imbalance" would inspire very little comment.

2.) As for the quality or professionalism of US dramatic productions (cinema, TV, or otherwise) — there is so much produced in both the US and the UK that I think it foolish to generalize. The same can safely be said regarding the actors themselves. There is no question that truly great and truly dreadful work has come out of both countries. I won't bother with examples except to say that if you don't like NCIS then watch something else, even the Dutch version of Top Gear if that floats your boat.

I do want to show respect to anyone who can't afford high-speed internet and must make do with what they can receive over the air or borrow from the library. Those people may arguably be better off if they live in the UK rather than in the US. At least in the US there's no "licencing fee".

Another point that needs to be brought up regarding dialect.

So there is indisputably an agreed-upon standard form of American English. Some people may draw a distinction between West Coast, Midwestern, and East Coast but frankly I can't tell the difference. In a typical American TV program or film, it's quite normal if not expected for every character to use that form of English. For example, in an office, the boss and all the employees might be shown using standard American English without any loss of verisimilitude for the typical audience. Regional dialects may be used but they aren't necessary (and usually inaccurate just ask any Southerner about portrayal of Southern accents in Hollywood).

A British actor need only master this one form of American English to be cast as an American in any US production.

The situation in Britain is far more daunting. I can count at least 3 standard forms of British English. There is Received Pronunciation, Upper Class/Public School, and what I would call "modern urban sophisticate" types of English accent. Which is appropriate for a given role depends on the character's back story and position in society. In addition, regional accents are often a requirement. For example, an actor portraying a taxi driver must speak as a taxi driver would be expected to speak in the city where the action takes place. In reality, the taxi driver would never be expected to speak one of the 3 "standard" forms I identified above, whereas it's perfectly OK in an American drama to encounter a taxi driver who speaks standard American English (unless the action is set in NYC in which case you'll hear a very rough approximation of a New York accent).

This is a huge hurdle for an American actor, who has never lived in Britain, to overcome and might be said to be an "unfair advantage" in favor of British actors migrating west.

The main reason british actors are coming to the US is that there are more opportunities here.

There are some great programs on British television but there are also great American shows. House of cards, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Fargo, etc. British shows generally have a few episodes (like 4 or 5) per season whereas American shows have a minimum of 13. HBO, Showtime, Netflix, etc don't have any commercials so the argument regarding commercials is really related to the fact that there are more choices of networks in the US.

British actors have more traditional training than US actors. But there are countless American actors without traditional training who are absolutely amazing .