{"id":3936,"date":"2018-04-06T11:00:57","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T15:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/?p=3936"},"modified":"2018-04-04T09:24:13","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T13:24:13","slug":"tyler-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/2018\/04\/06\/tyler-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Tyler A: UK v. US Television: What\u2019s the difference?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before I landed at London Heathrow Airport this January (yes, I am abroad, but I didn\u2019t want to give you the standard \u201cI am abroad!\u201d post), I thought that at any time I could just plop down and turn on NBC. But nope! I was silly! Maybe I\u2019m not like everyone else, but I really had no idea what television was like in the UK. Since this is a blog for my fellow COM nerds, though, I thought it could be useful to give a broad overview of our differences:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    In the UK, public service broadcasting is king (or queen): <\/strong>In the late 1920s when the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) received a Royal Charter, one of the agreements was for radio \u2013 and later television \u2013 \u00a0to serve as a public resource, and by extension, became a government agency overseen by Parliament. Users had to pay an annual licence fee to listen, which also funded the organization. The belief was that it would prevent the creation of low-brow programming and instead result in higher-quality to inform, educate, and entertain the masses. BBC ran as a pseudo-monopoly in the UK for decades and arguably still does today. Back in the US, broadcast TV is set up commercially with revenue mainly coming from advertising (though the revenue streams have since slightly evolved in both the UK and US). Regardless, the US took on a much more \u201cfree market\u201d idea of television. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    The major players in the US versus the UK: <\/strong>What do you think of as the big US TV companies? At least when it comes to broadcast, most people would say NBCUniversal, ABC\/Disney, CBS Corp, and Fox. As American media seems to dominate globally, the content produced by these conglomerates still make their way into UK TV in one way or another, but the big players are different here. For years it was only the BBC and for a new channel to be made, an act of Parliament needed to call for it. That\u2019s how in the 1950s Independent Television (ITV) came along as BBC\u2019s largest competitor. Later in the the 80s and 90s, Channel 4 and Channel 5 (now Five) came along. All channels besides the BBC are funded by adverts, and these are the big UK players.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    Technological Development: <\/strong>How does your TV work at home? Do you use Cable? Satellite? Or maybe you\u2019re a cord-cutter (or cord-never) who\u2019s only used internet? The options in the US for TV providers feels endless (although it really isn\u2019t, but that\u2019s another story); however, the UK runs quite differently. Cable doesn\u2019t dominate, but people still mainly use aerials (or over-the-air) to receive channels. In the 2000s, \u201cFreeview\u201d arrived and gave all UK TV-users scores of channels for free (or, with your licence fee). Satellite is somewhat common and usually comes from the provider Sky (owned by Fox, which may now be owned by Disney? What\u2019s up, conglomeration! How you doin\u2019?), which opens you up to more options for a larger fee.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  4. \n

    The market and the regulations are quite different. <\/strong>What\u2019s the worst thing you could think of happening on air for a US broadcast TV show? Great. That\u2019s no problem here after 9 pm<\/span><\/span> because of a rule called \u201cwatershed\u201d where they expect younger audiences have gone to bed. It really threw me through a loop, but it\u2019s definitely nice when they can create such edgy content for widely-watched channels (like my production company\u2019s new show, <\/span>Kiss Me First, <\/span>on Channel 4 \u2013 catch it on US Netflix soon!). Ratings systems are different, and the markets are different. Of course it would be when you\u2019re in a country of ~65 million compared to ~330 million people. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  5. \n

    Don\u2019t fret! US TV is still here:<\/strong> <\/span>I panicked when I realized that I couldn\u2019t finish off my faves <\/span>The Good Place <\/span>or <\/span>Crazy Ex-Girlfriend <\/span>when I came here. But don\u2019t be afraid. A lot of US content creators strike deals for a second window in the UK. Both of the above shows aired their new episodes weekly on Netflix, as do many other shows. You may even catch some on BBC or Channel 4. I\u2019ve been watching <\/span>The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story <\/span>on BBC2 right with you. Okay, I\u2019m behind. But I\u2019m watching it, and I\u2019m alive!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And there we have it, folks. It\u2019s not a deeply comprehensive piece, but it\u2019s something to start you off. And now, if you ever come to London on study abroad, you can impress your professor with all of this knowledge! You\u2019re very welcome.<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Before I landed at London Heathrow Airport this January (yes, I am abroad, but I didn\u2019t want to give you the standard \u201cI am abroad!\u201d post), I thought that at any time I could just plop down and turn on NBC. But nope! I was silly! Maybe I\u2019m not like everyone else, but I really … Continue reading Tyler A: UK v. US Television: What\u2019s the difference?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2018,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[44421],"tags":[44488,44507,3338,44446],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3936"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3936"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3988,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3936\/revisions\/3988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}