Question for all you non-Americans :)

A look at the listings of main national channels reveals that here in Germany we can watch today, among others, following shows:
CSI Miami, CSI New York, House, Monk, Law & Order, McLeods daughters, The District, Scrubs, The Simpsons, Two and a Half Men, Rules of Engagement, What's up, Dad?, Star Trek Voyager, iCarly, Genie in the House, Family Guy, South Park, Married with Children, Friends, Dharma & Greg and so on. Some quite new, this season, some reruns.

As a Finnish immigrant here, I also subscribe an IPTV-service from Finland. From my native Finland, I could watch today, among others:
The Big Bang Theory, 3rd Rock from the Sun (my absolute favorite, I think it's already on it's 5th rerun round), The 70's Show, N.C.I.S & N.C.I.S Los Angeles, CSI New York & CSI Miami, Law & Order: Crimininal Intent & Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Good Wife, Nurse Jackie, Californication, Eureka, Friends, 24, House, Desperate Housewives, Frasier, The Cleaner, My name is Earl, America's Funniest Home Videos, Smallville, Oprah, Dr. Phil, Jimmy Kimmel, Jay Leno.

In Germany, most American shows (especially sitcoms) are quite old, reruns. The Finnish broadcasters seem to spend more money, generally the foreign shows shown there ATM are either this season or the last one. Exceptions are the old favorites that are shown, it certainly looks like it, always: 3rd Rock from the Sun is now on it's 5th round; every time they have aired the final episode, the next time it starts all over again. Same with The 70's show and Friends, for instance.

In Finland we also watch quite a lot of British television, in Germany not so much. In Finnish TV today for instance Only fools and Horses, Emmerdale, Eastenders, Heartbreake, Top Gear, Fifth Gear, The Royal and so on.

Kari

EDIT: For those interested, you can watch a lot of American and British channels live with FilmOn. You can watch the programme directly in your browser, or download FilmOn HDI Player. Subscriptions are available, but not necessary. Without user account and subscription, you can ATM watch for instance ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC from USA, or BBC 1, 2 and 3, ITV 1, 2 and 3, Channel Four, Channel Five, Film 4 and E4 from the UK.

Here's FilmOn HDI Player on my desktop a minute ago, watching The Early Show from CBS 2 HD live (7:34 AM there, 3:34 PM here):






Kari

Wow Kari! Thanks, that is pretty much exactly what I was wondering. So when it comes to TV (sitcoms and stuff), there aren't as many in other countries as here in the US?

Kirsch said:

Wow Kari! Thanks, that is pretty much exactly what I was wondering. So when it comes to TV (sitcoms and stuff), there aren't as many in other countries as here in the US?

I would not say that.

The list I gave was put together from 15 biggest main, national broadcasters in Germany and 13 in Finland (I only subscribe 13 channels from Finland). In both countries there are at least as much domestic shows, or "localized" versions of originally foreign shows.

Germany as a TV country is more domestic. All channels have they own, German shows, sitcoms and talk shows. Although the concept and / or original idea often comes from abroad, the shows are completely German.

Same thing in Finland, although Finnish TV is more international, also showing quite a lot of French, German, Spanish and Italian shows in addition to those British and American already mentioned, only to mention a few.

The main reason I watch more Finnish than German television although living in Germany is the language. Although speaking and understanding German, almost perfectly, I'm very keen on learning new languages and want to watch foreign shows with original audio. In Finland, all programs and shows are shown with original audio with subtitles, whereas here in Germany (as in all German speaking countries) everything is dubbed in German, nothing is original and subtitled. My German wife for instance learns Finnish by watching her favorite German shows from Finnish TV, with original German audio and Finnish subtitles. But a Finnish show shown in German TV is dubbed to German.

When Ilsa, played by Ingrid Bergman, says "Play it once, Sam, for old times' sake" in Casablanca shown in Finnish television, with her beautiful Scandinavian accent, it's film history in making, a pure pleasure to see and hear. When the same film is shown in German television and an unknown German voice says "Spielen Sie es einmal, Sam, alten Zeiten zu liebe", and the lip movements don't match with words, it's really unpleasant, something I refuse to watch and hear.

Anyway, interesting subject. Recovering from some serious health problems, I'm mostly lying in the bed and getting bored, so I watch quite a lot of television nowadays.

Kari

Here's the schedule for here for the Discovery Channel (my favorite). Some movie channels are also there telecasting hollywood movies, sometimes with subtitles and sometimes not..

Schedule for Discovery Channel playing on Tue, Nov 02 | Tuesday, November 02 | burrp!TV Guide

I think a programme "A Haunting (like it much)" has american accent,which is telecasted here. Man vs wild and Survivorman are also my two favorite survival shows, which i think, are from UK.

I would also add you can go to stream sites and with the listings you get there would be other viewers streaming it across the net for you to enjoy sites such as

justintv.com to name one most of the time it is real people streaming this stuff also it is modded and no illegal conduct pretty much you have to make a account to be a full member also you can view without being a member just you'll have no chat privledges

I only suggest this cause i am on the go most of the time I am out and about making ends meet for the familly so i have to catch what i like being streamed pretty much when i get home so i can never miss anything

stream sites are so great they can even stream ppv events with out invading copywright laws which i think is way cool

Solarstarshines said:

...
justintv.com to name one
...

Wrong link. The real address is Justin.tv (no .com)

Kari

Hi Kari,

See that you are making up for lost time with some pretty long posts
Good to have to back here :)

Anyway, to the point, I haven't really paid any attention to tv for quite a long time. The last show I watched and really enjoyed was Friends

Bring back the kids ! Please.......

First thing I thought when you said Kids was Kids in the Hall.



(which is Canadian btw)(and barely shown anymore)

Unless you investigate thoroughly it's hard to tell where the idea for a show came from. This is particularly true of game/ reality shows.
For instance we've had several years of Big Brother and Celebrity Big Brother. I believe the concept for this show came from one of the Scandinavian countries but I'm not sure.
It seems obvious to me that the idea for a game show or a reality show could and should be recreated for another audience using local people. If the concept is good in the first place then it should play well anywhere.
It is only the little things that differ. For example I understand that the Dutch version of Big Brother contained nudity and sex whereas this was only hinted at in the UK version.
The sitcom is a different matter. I would differ from the earlier post in thinking that the US version of The Office was nowhere near as good as the UK original.
With the US version it was pretty obvious that you were watching a sitcom. When I first watched the original I thought I was watching a "fly on the wall" documentary. It was much more subtle in my opinion.
There is a general view in the UK that Americans lack a sense of irony. I disagree with that. The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, King of The Hill etc are full of subtle and ironic humour and have been huge successes here.
Likewise John Stewart's show is very popular and, if I go back a bit, sitcoms like Cheers and Frazier and Friends.
Nearly all of the big HBO dramas have been a success here and The Sopranos is up there with my all time favourites. There would have been no way of remaking this show in an English setting.
Obviously we have organised crime in this country and even the Mafia operate here but so do the Russian mafia and the Turkish mafia etc. There have been drama shows about English criminal gangs but they don't tend to be as flamboyant or stylish as The Sopranos. Obviously I have no way of knowing how close to the truth this portayal of the New Jersey gang was but then I don't suppose many folks in Oklahoma know either and it doesn't matter. It was just a superb piece of scripting and a greaty story arc.
Perhaps the fact that US shows are targeted at such a huge and diverse constituency makes the remaking of sitcoms an inevitability. Some jokes just wouldn't play to an American audience.
For example, the UK is a very secular country, less than 2% of the population attend church. Irreverent humour, profanity and sexual humour is quite commonplace and maybe this would not be well received in the "bible belt"
In general US culture in the form of TV, music and movies have been pretty pervasive in the UK since the second world war yet many Brits have an ambivalent attitude towards American culture.
People will say that the Americans lack irony and subtlety, that they are unsophisticated etc and there is the stereotype of the right wing religious gun toting redneck.
So Brits are torn. How can all this US music and literature and drama be "cool" if they're all rednecks.?
Plainly this is a very blinkered view and does not take into account the vastness of the US and the amazing variety of environments and viewpoints.
It is hard for us to grasp the sheer size of the US from our tiny island:)