american tv over in the uk

should the american tv networks broadcast over here? because in my opinion they have excelent tv networks !!!!

I'm none too sure I agree with you about them being excellent, I think I'll pass on that one; but YES it WOULD be nice to have them on Sky Digital, purely to widen the choice.

Shouldn't think there's a cat in a bucket's chance of it happening though. The copyright issues would be horrendous.

Well from a presentation point of view, they're quite poor really - I mean, no idents!!

Technically, it would be one hell of a nightmare to arrange rights issues over American tv programmes.

You can actually listen to the major networks, for anyone interested at http://www.elephantaudio.com/viewtv.phtml

Cheers, Asa

Who only on Sky? I, for one, would like to see the US Stations just to see what they are like.

As has been said, it would be a rights nightmare, plus I think the networks still close down during the day and local stations broadcast mainly local news so what would we do then.

Don't forget too that the 'American trash' people complain about on UK TV is just the best that was picked for us to watch - can you imagine the sh**e that's on in between?

Didn't NBC have a European entertainment channel one - I think it eventually got replaced with CNBC. And of course we more or less DO get FOX

Yes well there was an NBC feed on one of the satellites a few months ago, and I have to say I was waaay less than impressed. Their presentation was atrocious, and the programmes weren't much better!!

Yes, it's nice for curiosity value but really they're not that good.

Canadian stations seem better in my experience.

Well for a start, which affiliate would we see? Remember they're NETWORKS not CHANNELS. Although it wouldn't really matter.

From what I've heard American TV presentation is quite a shock to the system.

Arranging rights would be an astronomical task, and what would it do to channels like Sky One and E4 which really heavily on American imports? Who would wait months to see new episodes of Friends or The Simpsons or Star Trek on E4 and Sky One when you could see it now on WB, FOX or UPN?

I doubt we would be able to see the commercials (well we can't on Fox News) so we'd spend a good 20 minutes of every hour staring at 'Back after the break' captions.

Fox News Europe is a straight relay of Fox News US, the only thing tampered with is that the commercials are blanked out (and there's only so much of that Sky Sports music you can stand) and frankly a news channel is as far into an American TV channel as I want to get.

But having said that, I'd probably peruse them just so I could have a go at them.

Interesting idea, but there are too many reasons why it won't happen.

Superchannel > NBC Superchannel > NBC Europe > CNBC Europe

NBC Europe wasn't actually that bad. There were a few decent programmes - mainly news programmes - and a bit of entertainment, it was actually amazingly popular across Europe.

MSNBC's 'The News With Brian Williams' was on there, and that is perhaps the best American news programme I've ever come across. MSNBC do generally take a lot of notice of the British news networks, they quote Sky quite a bit if there is ever some British related breaking news, and they had a discussion about the BBC and its coverage of the war in Afghanistan. However, I was watching it at the top of the hour this afternoon and was **** ing myself. 'I'm such and such at the Pentagon with this and this report and I'll have details coming up' followed by 'I'm so and so at the White House...' - it was just one big cheesy minute, and topped off with an announcer saying some thing stupid like 'from MSNBC world headquarters (a factory in New Jersey...) here's somewoman with the latest on the war in Afghanistan' - very very cheesy. But the coverage is good.

One thing I have always wondered - just how is it that the American news networks manage to make really flashy animated 3d graphics in about a day? Whilst we get erm... nothing.

NBC Europe still exists on Hotbird Digital, I watch it quite often. Only problem is it's part owned by a German company now so a lot of the programmes are von Berlin auf Deutsch...

If American networks were to be shipped straight to the UK, you'd probably get the flagship network affiliate - which is the New York stations. Seems like much less of a hassle to deal with the network who owns the station instead of a third party affiliate.

Asa is correct though in saying that there are no network idents. It's usually the affiliate/station itself that has the idents - 'This is WNBC New York Channel 4 - An NBC station' etc.

And I HIGHLY suggest that the Fox network not be shipped to the UK. Completely pants. Rotten programming and such. As for the other networks and their news outputs, it's really really US-centric... then again, what do you expect. It's not like BBC or Sky where International news is covered at a high concentration. The U.S. networks just carry news that affects the United States. If not, it's forgotten.

The question should be whether or not UK television networks should be broadcasted directly to North America.

(Edited by EDTV at 5:35 pm on Dec. 29, 2001)


(Edited by EDTV at 5:36 pm on Dec. 29, 2001)

>itself that has the idents - 'This is WNBC New York Channel 4 - >An NBC station' etc
Do any american stations have intersting names? Our ITV stations all have distinctive names. We have Anglia, Meridian, Central, Tyne Tees and they have KGWH-TV, NYC-TV9 etc (they are made up names BTW). Do they have anything which isn't just an abbreviation for something boring like the name of the state or the nearest city etc.?

Honestly, nope - they don't have any interesting names. Most use the call letters (Wxxx or Kxxx) or the network abbreviation followed by ther terrestrial/cable dial number (NBC4, CBS2, ABC7).

I wish American TV would have better presentation - but they want to squeeze in as much commercial time as possible. NBC's graphics for programme promos (etc) are excellent IMO. Very high quality and high tech-looking. PBS National Network has excellent presentation though, but only Dish network customers (me) get it - one good thing!

But there's no way that you'd get US networks on Sky. Just way too many legal issues and other complications.