Delay between US season premiers and UK season premiers?

L

Leta

New member
I've been thinking about this for a while and I'm just wondering if someone can shed some light on the situation.
Why is there such a delay between US season premiers and UK season premiers? And presumably visa versa. Glee really got me thinking about this but it made me really notice the huge gap in other shows. For example in the US the new series of Glee started late September but it won't start over here until December. That's not so bad compared to How I Met Your Mother. I saw an advert for the "new" season recently and was disappointed to find it was the last season which I'd already watched online, in fact the real new one started in America about the same time as the old new one here. I know there are plenty of other examples but that's all I can think of off the top of my head.

My question is why? In this day and age with (admittedly illegal) video sharing online surely they'd want to shorten the gap? By the time either of those series reach the UK I'll have already watched them online so I won't watch them on tv. I can't be the only one who does this. (I know that wouldn't affect the ratings much but with every show competing in a rating war surely every little helps)

I can understand this situation 5-10 years ago when the internet wasn't so huge and the only real way to watch shows a head of time would be to get some one to send you a video (I knew someone who did this). It's the same with movies and dvd releases.

I can understand a small delay of a week or so like they did with the second half of the last series of Glee, after all which ever company put money into and made the show should show it first, but up to a years delay? (back to How I Met Your Mother again there) Really?

I know not all shows do this but for the ones that do it seems like they need to catch up with technology.
 
1) Cost - though as you can see the likes of The Mentalist & SGU are being shown a week or so after showing in the US
2) Continuity - US series typically go for a few weeks, disappear or have repeats for a few weeks, then aren't shown then back to new episodes - for example there was no new Mentalist this week in the US, therefore on the 5th C5 aren't showing an episode.
 
A number of reasons really.

Firstly, UK broadcasters have not typically liked the US scehdule style where US series stretch out 22-24 episodes that make a season into a 32 week period. As a result US nets broadcast reruns at odd intervals during the break making for an interrupted run of most series. The Uk typically has held back until at least January / February when they can then start the run and air the season uninterrupted and still finish a few weeks after the US finish date.

A second reason is down to costs. TV shows are expensive and the longer the gap between the original US airdate and its UK premiere, usually the cheaper it is per episode.

A third reason might be because UK broadcasters may not have been confident about certain shows and so, these get overlooked when first offered. Then later the show might become quite big, and Uk broadcasters might step in late to purchase the TV show in question.
 
Smallville Season 10 started in the US on the 24th September.E4 showed the last episode of Season 9 last Tuesday (18th October).At a guess E4 will probablyl not show Season 10 until next July/August.It would be good if E4 showed Season 10 earlier in the year.
 
I for one want my shows to start, continue and finish in one go thank you very much.

We now have a mid-season break (e.g. in Eureka) which I can do without.

It really doesn't matter to me in the slightest way if the people in the US saw it a few days ago, a few weeks ago, or (in extreme cases) a few years ago.

Case in point, I recently finally got around to watching "The Wire" when it was on BBC2. It was indeed, as advertised, probably one of the best TV series ever made. Now I'm not advocating "saving up" a multi-year series to watch in one go ... but the fact that some of the earlier eps had been seen by other people a few years earlier had no little impact on my enjoyment ;)


What does wind me up is stupidity like the recent "Modern Family" stunt of "popping up" a text graphic saying something like "Shown only days after the States" during the opening minutes :eek:
 
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