The TV thread

Try Netflix streaming, also. They have a ton of British series (including Luther). Of course, most of them I haven't gotten to yet.

 

We're talking about viewing new episodes as they appear. Netflix streaming doesn't get the newest seasons until quite a while after they air.

 

Netflix had The Fall, which was outstanding, a few weeks after it aired in Ireland and England.

 

Interesting. For most shows, the previous season usually becomes available a little before the time the new season is beginning.

 

The potential problem of watching it on BBC America is some episodes are edited to allow time for commercial breaks. Watching it on the BBC iPlayer gives you the complete, unedited episodes at the original source. The BBC One S03E01 Luther episode is 57 minutes 39 seconds long with no adverts (Brit-speak for commercials). S03E02 is over 59 minutes long and S03E03 is 58 minutes 45 seconds. When they finally air on BBC America, if they're put into the normal hour long grid including commercials, you'll know some of it was cut.

Another example is the BBC America version of Top Gear which is highly edited from the original UK telecasts. Plenty of good stuff ends up being cut to make room for US commercial time. I prefer to see the whole original unaltered show if possible. The iPlayer at bbc.co.uk provides that opportunity. Being also able to view it the day after it was originally telecast in the UK just adds the icing to the cake.

Almost all BBC UK original series are edited in some form when they run on BBC America.

 

I think some episodes of Top Gear on BBC America are fit into a 90-minute slot, instead of a 60-minute slot. I hope that they do that with Luther.

But yes, I think it's jarring to watch BBC shows on American TV because they are not designed to have commercials and they tend to put the ads in in the most awkward places.

If you are tech-savvy and can get a VPN to work on your computer, you can watch the iPlayer here in the States. *cough* not that I have done such things or would ever endorse it.

 

Why don't the British have commercials?

 

It's just the BBC channels (which I think are similar to our network channels -- ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.) The British citizens pay a fee to avoid commercials. At least, I think that's how it is. If I'm wrong, please correct me.

 

Damn. Well, at least we don't have a monarchy.

 

from Wikipedia about the UK's television license:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence#United_Kingdom



....and you are correct Wenders that only the 6 BBC TV Channels (BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC Four, BBC News and BBC Parliament) and the BBC Radio stations are commercial-free. Some of the other UK TV channels (especially the ones owned by Ruppert Murdock's companies) along with ITV seem to have as many, if not more primetime 'adverts' than CBS, ABC or NBC do here in the U.S.

 

There are people in England who watch TV in black and white? Also, what about HD?

Also, what is the incentive to create good programming?

 

Considering that most BBC programming is considered by most countries to be of the highest quality available, the 'an additional or alternate financial incentive to create good programming' may not be needed.

Could they be as good or even better if they scrapped a TV licence and replaced in with commercials? Maybe. Maybe not. We'll never know unless the Brits change their system. However not having a program, especially a suspense mystery show or a movie, break into numerous commercials totaling 22 minutes each and every hour is pretty damn nice.