We get many BBC shows over here via digital cable TV, on the BBC America channel. I've seen an episode or two of Eastenders. The Weakest Link had a brief (and much ballyhooed) American run a few years back -- but it didn't fly well enough to stay on the tube.

There is a brewing conflict coming up in the US between the cable TV industry and various consumer groups, etc.. Many people over here have expressed the desire to be allowed to select the cable channels which they wish to receive: and to leave out the rest. It would be personally tailored TV. Well -- the cable industry is fighting that particular idea tooth & nail: because they know that a good number of currently-run-but-never-watched-by-anyone channels would be left out in the cold under such an arrangement. Nobody would order those not-watched channels. And certain other channels would lose a lot of their market share. The cable industry sees all of this as being a danger to their own bottom line. As matters stand now - the cable companies can charge us for all of those extra channels -- even though we never watch them. By contrast, under an individually selective channel system the cable industry couldn't charge for what we didn't take.

But there is hope: we Americans like to have the freedom to make individual choices about such matters -- without either cable companies or the government telling us what we HAVE to do. And the American public normally gets what it wants.

At least we don't have to obtain a license to watch TV in our own homes. Yet.

Better not talk about this subject too loudly........some left-of-center Washington type might be reading this thread. They might start gettin' ideas.

Message edited on: 03/06/2006 17:05

Something To Do At 3:00AM