Is there much British telly on in America?
Biscuitman
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Kraichgauer
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Do you have to have a specific satellite subscription to get it or is there more on mainstream channels?
Like others said, we get some on the Public Broadcasting Station. Mostly The Great British Baking Show, Call the Midwife, Sherlock, Doc Brown, The Vicar of Dibley, and a few others.
Yeah, PBS has always shown a lot of BBC, and Masterpiece Theatre, etc.
I want to say there was more than one BBC channel on certain cable services, but I can't remember.
There's also a lot of BBC available on streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, and there are other British-specific streams like Acorn TV.
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Long-winded, but I'll post this for anyone outside the US who's curious how American broadcast TV works. We should also tell them what PBS is. (Let me know if I'm incorrect about anything):
I believe in the UK, all or most over-the-air broadcast stations are BBC. Correct me if I'm wrong. The British also have to pay a tax or fee to have an antenna on their house to receive TV signals, but I think there are less commercials on British television.
In the USA, there are several major broadcast networks. The FCC usually only allows these networks to operate one channel in any given market/area. They make their revenue from advertising/commercials; viewers don't have to pay if they have an antenna atop their roof, we just have to sit through a lot of commercials.
For instance: most metropolitan areas will have one ABC affiliate, one NBC affiliate, one CBS affiliate, one FOX affiliate, etc. You can look up all of those major American broadcast networks. They're technically in competition with each other, and each network creates its own programming or buys syndicated programs to broadcast. Anyway, the content is almost entirely American (unless they're showing a James Bond movie or something).
One broadcast network is known as PBS. Public Broadcasting Service. Unlike the other major networks, PBS is non-for-profit and non-commercial* ...well, more-or-less. They get subsidized by the federal government and are constantly having fundraising drives asking viewers to "pledge their support." Anyway, programming on PBS is a bit different. More documentaries, more artsy. PBS is indeed known for showing some British TV shows from time-to-time. Most Americans who remember watching Monty Python growing up were most certainly seeing it on PBS.
There are also two anthology programs: Masterpiece Theater and Mystery! which have been on for a long, long time now. They just collect and air various British crime and drama shows.
PBS is how I learned about Gormenghast. Apparently, those were very big novels in the UK. I'd never heard of them, but PBS aired the miniseries.
Other British shows I remember from PBS: Red Dwarf, Keeping Up Appearances, Last of the Summer Wine, Mr. Bean.
In New York City, you get a copious amount of British shows on PBS channels 13 and 21.
Then there are the British-produced shows on such entities as Netflix.
Then there are those which I can't think of at the moment---but that do exist.
We don't get the more "pop-culturish" British shows, though.
Biscuitman
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I believe in the UK, all or most over-the-air broadcast stations are BBC. Correct me if I'm wrong. The British also have to pay a tax or fee to have an antenna on their house to receive TV signals, but I think there are less commercials on British television.
In the USA, there are several major broadcast networks. The FCC usually only allows these networks to operate one channel in any given market/area. They make their revenue from advertising/commercials; viewers don't have to pay if they have an antenna atop their roof, we just have to sit through a lot of commercials.
For instance: most metropolitan areas will have one ABC affiliate, one NBC affiliate, one CBS affiliate, one FOX affiliate, etc. You can look up all of those major American broadcast networks. They're technically in competition with each other, and each network creates its own programming or buys syndicated programs to broadcast. Anyway, the content is almost entirely American (unless they're showing a James Bond movie or something).
One broadcast network is known as PBS. Public Broadcasting Service. Unlike the other major networks, PBS is non-for-profit and non-commercial* ...well, more-or-less. They get subsidized by the federal government and are constantly having fundraising drives asking viewers to "pledge their support." Anyway, programming on PBS is a bit different. More documentaries, more artsy. PBS is indeed known for showing some British TV shows from time-to-time. Most Americans who remember watching Monty Python growing up were most certainly seeing it on PBS.
There are also two anthology programs: Masterpiece Theater and Mystery! which have been on for a long, long time now. They just collect and air various British crime and drama shows.
PBS is how I learned about Gormenghast. Apparently, those were very big novels in the UK. I'd never heard of them, but PBS aired the miniseries.
Other British shows I remember from PBS: Red Dwarf, Keeping Up Appearances, Last of the Summer Wine, Mr. Bean.
appreciate the detailed response
With regards to your 2nd paragraph there are 5 free to air broadcast channels in the UK - BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 & Channel 5.
appreciate the detailed response
With regards to your 2nd paragraph there are 5 free to air broadcast channels in the UK - BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 & Channel 5.
Thank you for the information, Biscuitman .
Are those channels actually free, or is it true you have to pay some sort of television tax / fee for having an antenna?
Biscuitman
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appreciate the detailed response
With regards to your 2nd paragraph there are 5 free to air broadcast channels in the UK - BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 & Channel 5.
Thank you for the information, Biscuitman .
Are those channels actually free, or is it true you have to pay some sort of television tax / fee for having an antenna?
Those 5 channels are referred to here as the 'terrestrial tv channels'
The BBC is paid for by a tv license, which you must have if you own a tv (£150 a year - some people qualify for reduced fee). The other channels are technically free, but to watch them you need a tv, and having a tv incurs a license fee.
So while we call them 'free', we just mean that you don't pay for an additional satellite subscription, you just use an aerial. It's quite common here for people to not have any further satellite subscriptions and just have those 5 channels. They cater for everything really, they all show news, entertainment, documentaries, sport, soaps etc. Most of the TV programmes you would hear people talking about having watched here in the UK would be on one of them.
I have a satellite subscription as my wife likes watching the latest films (those 5 terrestrial channels don't do any new films) and I like watching live sport, mostly football, which the satellite channels pay billions of £££ for the rights to show)
Danger Mouse...Powerhouse!
But, seriously, why are you using the British spelling of humor? Don't get too carried away with the subject here.
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