There's this new show on the tube in the US called Keen Eddie. It's about a New York cop working for Scotland Yard in England. The interesting thing is that it appears to be shot in England, and not just establishing shots, et al. All the actors but the lead seem to be genuinely British, and there are even a few I recognize (Alexei Sayle and Josie Lawrence, to name a few whose names I know). There are even nearly unintelligible Scotsmen.

I was initially going to post and ask if this was somehow also being shown on British TV, but then I remembered that British TV seasons appear to be about six episodes long, unlike US seasons of around 22.

So I guess I want to get a better idea of how British TV works. To get the gist of what I'm looking for, I'll describe US TV. (Actually, if someone wants to pipe in about Canadian TV or Australian TV or Italian TV or whatever, I'd probably be interested in that, too.)

So US TV is split a bunch of different ways. Most of what you're likely to hear about over there is what we'd call broadcast or network TV. This is TV that's programmed by the major networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and, to a lesser extent, WB and UPN. The idea is that these networks have local affiliates who are told what to show during ``Prime Time'', which is basically 8PM-11PM every night, plus some additional time on Sunday afternoon to evening, often for either sports or family programming. ( I believe that the networks also control a few hours around noon during the weekdays for soap operas, and maybe some game shows, but I don't know a lot about that.) The WB and UPN networks are fairly new, and they don't have as much programming, so they don't have shows for the entirety of Prime Time. Shows are sent to the local affiliates in advance via satellite where they are then rebroadcasted at the appropriate times. This was originally done over the airwaves, but Cable TV has been common in the US for twenty years or so. This is essentially a wide-area closed circuit system run over coaxial cabling run to each house that subscribes. Receiving programming over the airwaves is 100% free. Subscribing to cable is not.

During the time not reserved for the network programming, the local stations broadcast a variety of programming, from locally produced shows (including the local news), to syndicated series, to reruns of old shows. Often, they go off the air late at night (2AM or so), broadcasting nothing. Often they show infomercials during that time, instead, which are essentially 30-minute or hour long paid advertisements.

With the advent of cable, there became the possibility to send more than the few local stations, and what's come to be called ``basic cable'' channels emerged. These are channels that are totally centrally based. They have no local affiliates; they send their signals directly to the cable rebroadcasters. They run their own programming. Other than a few channels that are like local stations on a national level a few with a few original series, most of them have a theme, like all-comedy, all-reruns, for-kids, science fiction, educational, etc.

All of these stations, broadcast and basic cable, run advertisements during the shows. For each 30-minute segment, approximately eight minutes is reserved for advertisements. A little less is reserved for them during prime time shows. (An ancillary point is that that means that when a prime time show is rebroadcast not during prime time as a syndicated rerun, some of the content is chopped out to make room for more commercials.)

US TV centers around prime time. These are the first run shows. They run original episodes from about September to about June. Each series runs at the same day of the week at the same time (except for special showings and when they get moved around in the schedule, which is usually way too often except for well established shows). A series that succeeds usually has about 22 episodes during that time. They usually don't show all the episodes in consecutive weeks. There's often a lull in the middle, and the occasional missed week or two here and there.

Prime time shows are rarely produced by the network itself. They are made by production companies set up to produce TV shows. They generally make a pilot episode and then shop it around. If a network likes it, it'll order some number of episodes. How many may depend on if they're trying it out, if they're intending it as a replacement series, etc. Also, many production companies are affiliated with networks, but there's no guarantee that the shows they produce will be on those networks. For example, Buffy was produced by Fox, but broadcast first on WB, and, later, on UPN. Which brings us to the rare occurrance of network switching. It's not common, but since the show is produced not by the network, if the network decides not to order any more, then more episodes can be purchased by another network. This happens maybe once every five years or so.

Programs are often cancelled with no warning and without allowing a show to begin to capture an audience. They have to be replaced. Sometimes they're replaced by reruns of another show in the primetime lineup, but they also schedule mid-season replacements, which are basically second-string programs that they didn't feel confident about starting a season with. There are generally not a full 22 episodes of these -- usually half that or less. They can get cancelled, too. If they like a program enough that was set as a mid-season replacement, they might do the original broadcasting of it in the summer. These are called summer replacements. They often take the spot of a program that was cancelled at the end of the regular season; the networks don't run summer reruns of cancelled shows, even if it went out on top.

There are also shows known as syndicated shows. This means that a production company makes the show in order to sell it to individual local stations. There's no network to back it up, so the cost of the show is often less than an equivalent network show. This leads to the case that many of them are cheesy. Xena is a good example, but there are many others. Star Trek series other than the original were distributed this way until Paramount created their own network. In fact, it led the way for syndicated series. Other shows are also syndicated, like Oprah, et al., game shows, some cartoons, etc. Prime time reruns are also sold this way, but they're not referred to as syndicated shows. That name tends to be reserved for first-run syndication, and, even more specifically, first-run syndicated sitcoms (of which there are few) and dramas.

Then there's PBS. It works kind of like a network, but all the programming is produced by local PBS affiliates and distributed through the national organization. They don't show commercials (as such), with much of their funding coming from charitable organizations and private donations. Some programs are funded by companies, who usually have a small commercial tacked to the beginning or end of the program. Usually yearly, they have a fund drive where they interrupt regular programming to beg for people to call in and donate. Their programming tends to be a little more literate than the other outlets, showing quality documentaries, well-made literary adaptations, and educational material. They also often show bottom-of-the-barrel British sitcoms (Are You Being Served, e.g.) for some reason.

There're also a few periods known as ``sweeps''. This is the sample period that the networks use the ratings of to determine advertising costs. This usually means that they preempt their underperforming and middle-performing shows and have outrageousness (to greater and lesser extents) in their remaining programming. They'll often have special programming, even. (How this accurately represents how well the network is doing, I have no idea.) Sweeps happens in November, February, May, and July, although new programming is not usually run in July, so that one is hardly noticeable. Sweeps really only affects prime-time programming. I'm sure it has an effect on basic cable and local programming, but I don't think it's nearly as noticeable, if at all.

Then there's subscription channels. These are channels for which you pay extra, like HBO, Showtime, etc. They do not have commercials at all, except for time-killer commercials for their own programming. They originally showed mostly uncut theatrical movies after they left the theater, but Blockbuster lobbied the film industry to get videotapes of movies released before they were sent to the subscription channels, and they had to change their tune. This is now where you see, essentially, raunchier TV shows, like The Sopranos, Sex in the City, Six Feet Under, etc. Also some sporting events, especially boxing. These, like basic cable, are only available via cable -- not over the airwaves. You generally pay for them individually -- a la carte, if you will. They're fairly expensive.

Then there's satellite TV, like DirecTV and Dish Network. These function almost exactly like cable except for the distribution method. Any place above where I claimed cable-only you can assume applies to satellite TV, too.

Phew. Long-winded enough for ya'? Any USians, feel free to fill in any holes or correct mistakes I made.

So how does British TV differ? I know that most series only have about 6 episodes per season, and they say that there are no commercials, but I hear tell that that's not true (anymore?). Are there more series shown in order to fill up more time (like four times as many), or is there simply less original programming? 'Splain away.

Edit: Added stuff about PBS, syndication, and network production companies.

I haven't read your whole post yet, so I don't have any comments about how our TV networks work. From the length of your post, I have a feeling you've covered everything.

I would, however, like to comment on Keen Eddie. I have to say the writing is wonderful, I love the way it is shot, and the direction is great. Basically, I love it. Of course, because of my luck with TV shows, which is that every one I've ever took a liking to gets cancelled, I also hate it, just in case.

Oh, and yes, it is shot entirely in England, BTW.

Anyway, I just wanted to chime in on the show itself, it's my new show for Tuesday nights.

I'll try and answer some of your questions as a Brit.

I was initially going to post and ask if this was somehow also being shown on British TV, but then I remembered that British TV seasons appear to be about six episodes long, unlike US seasons of around 22.

We use the term "series" rather than season. Most series aren't as short as six episodes, they tend to run for about half the length of a US season.

Oddly, the series that seem to be short are the comedy shows that have since been exported to the US (Coupling, Men Behaving Badly etc).

So US TV is split a bunch of different ways. Most of what you're likely to hear about over there is what we'd call broadcast or network TV. This is TV that's programmed by the major networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and, to a lesser extent, WB and UPN. The idea is that these networks have local affiliates who are told what to show during ``Prime Time'', which is basically 8PM-11PM every night, plus some additional time on Sunday afternoon to evening, often for either sports or family programming. ( I believe that the networks also control a few hours around noon during the weekdays for soap operas, and maybe some game shows, but I don't know a lot about that.) The WB and UPN networks are fairly new, and they don't have as much programming, so they don't have shows for the entirety of Prime Time. Shows are sent to the local affiliates in advance via satellite where they are then rebroadcasted at the appropriate times. This was originally done over the airwaves, but Cable TV has been common in the US for twenty years or so. This is essentially a wide-area closed circuit system run over coaxial cabling run to each house that subscribes. Receiving programming over the airwaves is 100% free. Subscribing to cable is not.

During the time not reserved for the network programming, the local stations broadcast a variety of programming, from locally produced shows (including the local news), to syndicated series, to reruns of old shows. Often, they go off the air late at night (2AM or so), broadcasting nothing. Often they show infomercials during that time, instead, which are essentially 30-minute or hour long paid advertisements.

Ok, the UK works like this. We have (roughly) three different types of TV channel.

Firstly there is the BBC channels, until recently there were just two of these BBC1 and BBC2. They have no adverts, that really is zero adverts, not just not many adverts. BBC1 is the "mainstream" channel, BBC2 is the more high-brow specialist channel. The BBC channels are paid for by a TV licence fee that everyone who watches TV has to pay (about $170 a year per household).

Then we have the original non-BBC channels ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. These are paid for by adverts (but we have shorter ads on these channels that the eqivalent US channels), though until recently got some money from the licence fee.

Finally we have hundreds of other channels that are only carried on the new digital platforms.

BBC1, BBC2 and ITV all have the concept of regional opt outs. I think this operates in a similar way to the US networks in that there are only certain periods in the day when they get to show different shows. Where it is far simplier is that there is only a single timezone in the UK. I always struggle in the US to work out when shows are actually on...

We've got several different platforms in the UK:

- the original analogue terrestial broadcast TV network (which carries only BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel4 and Channel5)
- the Sky Digital satellite which carries hundreds of channels (including all the ones above)
- the Freeview digital terrestial broadcast network which carries a couple of dozen channels, aimed at people who only want a few extra channels but don't want to pay for them (designed to eventually replace the analogue terrestial broadcast network )
- the cable networks (there has been lots of take overs here, I think there are basically two cable networks left)

Most of the channels on the Sky platform don't commission their own shows, they just show stuff that other people have made. The BBC, ITV and Channel4 do commission lots of their own shows, though I think most of them are actually made by independant production companies now.

The terrestial analogue and digital networks are both free (remembering that everyone has to pay the TV licence fee). All the other networks are subscription driven (though there are some free channels on Sky, the BBC ones and lots of channels that just carry infomercials).

Many of the subscription channels on Sky also carry advertising. The adverts are shorter (and typically higher quality) than US adverts.

Programs are often cancelled with no warning and without allowing a show to begin to capture an audience. They have to be replaced. Sometimes they're replaced by reruns of another show in the primetime lineup, but they also schedule mid-season replacements, which are basically second-string programs that they didn't feel confident about starting a season with. There are generally not a full 22 episodes of these -- usually half that or less. They can get cancelled, too. If they like a program enough that was set as a mid-season replacement, they might do the original broadcasting of it in the summer. These are called summer replacements. They often take the spot of a program that was cancelled at the end of the regular season; the networks don't run summer reruns of cancelled shows, even if it went out on top.

UK shows are not cancelled mid-series, but I guess that is the benefit of a shorter run than US seasons.

So how does British TV differ? I know that most series only have about 6 episodes per season, and they say that there are no commercials, but I hear tell that that's not true (anymore?). Are there more series shown in order to fill up more time (like four times as many), or is there simply less original programming?

I think there is less original programming. The BBC channels probably have about 70% UK sourced programming. Some of the satellite channels are probably more like 80% US sourced content.

P.S. thankfully we tend to only get the better US shows on the main channels in the UK, I have been stunned by the crap that is on US TV that we don't get to see over here...

...oh, forgot to say that I've never heard of Keen Eddie. Either it passed me by when it was on here, or it's been made for the US market.

The later. It was shot durring pilot season of 2002.

I don't want to jinx it, but judging by what I've read so far, it doesn't look like it is going to last. Which is to be expected if I like it, which I don't, I swear.

That'd be a shame, I just looked it up and found the guy who played Mr. Pimms in Toom Raider is in it too!
....and the dog used to belong to a crack dealer in 'the northern part of england' I wonder which part?

They even have a brit speak dictionary!

brassed off = frustrated, angry, e.g. “I’m brassed off at that wanker.”

builder's bum = better known in the States as “plumber’s crack”

flash the ash = to offer a cigarette. (Now i've never heard that one!)

wanker = all purpose insult

It's amazing the crap you find on the net! I'm intrigued now! I wonder if anyone has a copy of an episode? Maybe in divX or something?

Programs are often cancelled with no warning

Often? Try every time! I find it extremely rare that a show will be cancelled and allowed to either a) complete a season, or b) film and air a final "going away" episode. This is the thing that infuriates me about TV the most, especially since I seem to only enjoy the TV shows that get cancelled.

Futurama
Family Guy
Battlebots
Beat the Geeks

I could go on and on, and include older shows that were cancelled without warning (VR5, Mantis, Millenium), and this irritates me to no end. Many of these shows leave you with incomplete story lines, and you begin to wish that the networks would let them just air some sort of "wrap up" show.

Argh! I was going to say that the most annoying instance of this was the case of Futurama, but now all of a sudden I see they've started airing the remaining episodes! And I've missed the first ones! Argh, why didn't you people tell me?

Anyway, I think the networks have too much control over what airs. They can pull a show mid-season, and delay new episodes for months (I think the WB took this year's season and split it up for every single one of their shows).

Sorry for my rant. There are a lot of shows I want back...

the original analogue terrestial broadcast TV network (which carries only BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel4 and Channel5)

Don't forget the super-low budget local channels - I think there's about a dozen now. The nearest one here is Portsmouth TV. Their transmitter is on the 30m high submarine escape training tower in Gosport and broadcast about 1kW - not a lot compared to the 135m Rowridge (Isle of Wight) transmitter which is 500kW.

All the other networks are subscription driven (though there are some free channels on Sky, the BBC ones and lots of channels that just carry infomercials).

We have three Sky Digital receivers and only one subscription - you can get a free card from the BBC which gives you access, though they are going completely free-to-air at the end of the month so you won't even need that (Europeans - fill your boots!). There are a lot of free news channels and many, many radio stations too (all the BBC stations, Capital FM, Capital Gold, LBC, Virgin, Classic FM etc..)

On other point, most UK runs are produced in one go and are generally complete by the time it is broadcast - I believe many US shows film broadly in chronological order and are still in production when they series begins.

Gareth

I'm intrigued now! I wonder if anyone has a copy of an episode? Maybe in divX or something?

It's on alt.binaries.multimedia.sd-6. About 910Mb. I'll leave it running after I leave work today (no b/b at home )

Gareth

We use the term "series" rather than season. Most series aren't as short as six episodes, they tend to run for about half the length of a US season.

But the actual programme run-length of the UK series to probably similar to that of a US season due to the difference in advertisement length and frequency.

I'll try and answer some of your questions as a Brit.

Excellent.

We use the term "series" rather than season.

I actually knew that, but decided to use a single term to describe a single thing rather than get caught up in semantics. Thanks for pointing it out, though, as this isn't just for me. Hopefully.

Oddly, the series that seem to be short are the comedy shows that have since been exported to the US (Coupling, Men Behaving Badly etc).

By exported, do you mean shown on US TV, or revamped for US TV? If the latter (and even if not, really), it's always amused me that the US versions outstrip the British versions very quickly, not in quality (necessarily), but in volume. For example, Showtime is showing a version of Queer as Folk. They decided to copy the storylines from the British version (apparently -- I haven't seen the original), but ran out of episodes before the first season was over. Heh.

BBC2 is the more high-brow specialist channel.

So BBC2 shows totally separate programming from BBC1? I thought I'd heard that there was overlap. (In particular, I thought I remembered someone commenting on how Buffy the Vampire Slayer was shown at a reasonable time on one channel, but early in the morning on another.) Also, does highbrow mean more literary things, like, for example, the Pride and Prejudice series done a few years back?

we have hundreds of other channels that are only carried on the new digital platforms

Are these the same sort of cable channels we have in the US, like MTV, the Comedy Channel, Nick-at-Nite, SciFi channel, etc., or are they British based channels?

I think this operates in a similar way to the US networks in that there are only certain periods in the day when they get to show different shows.

That sounds kinda opposite to US networks, who have only certain hours when they're required to show network programming, probably seven hours a day, tops.

I always struggle in the US to work out when shows are actually on...

Heh. Me, too. It helps that we have all those local affilitates throughout the country rebroadcasting the original transmission. Being on the east coast makes it easy. The west coast is as easy. In the Central time zone (1 hour removed from the east coast), shows are generally shown at the same exact time as on the east coast, which means their national programming runs 1 hour earlier on the clock, so prime time runs from 7-10PM for them. In the mountain time zone (1 hour removed from the west coast in the other direction), shows get shown at the exact same time as on the west coast, so their clocks read 9PM-12M for prime time. I'm still at a loss for Alaska and Hawaii. Doug's explained Alaska before to some extent, but it's apparently a little haphazard.

... commercials ...

I'd been under the impression lately that the BBC had resorted to commercials. I guess that was a misconception based on scant evidence.

The adverts are shorter (and typically higher quality) than US adverts

Shorter? Most US commercials are 30s or 15s, at about a 2:1 ratio. How much sorter can you feasibly get?

I made a wording mistake in my original post. Allow me to clear it up:

If they like a program enough that was set as a mid-season replacement, they might do the original broadcasting of it in the summer.

What I meant was that if they had a series scheduled as a mid-season replacement but didn't use it, they might do its first run during the summer off-months. This would seem to be the case with Keen Eddie.

So BBC2 shows totally separate programming from BBC1? I thought I'd heard that there was overlap. (In particular, I thought I remembered someone commenting on how Buffy the Vampire Slayer was shown at a reasonable time on one channel, but early in the morning on another.)

They mostly show separate programming. A very few, very popular BBC1 programmes will get repeated on BBC2 at a different time in the week, for people who missed the first showing.

Also, does highbrow mean more literary things, like, for example, the Pride and Prejudice series done a few years back?

Perhaps "minority" is a better description than "highbrow". A dramatisation of Pride and Prejudice is mainstream and would be on BBC1. A discussion programme about Jane Austen's influence on female emancipation would be on BBC2.

Are these the same sort of cable channels we have in the US, like MTV, the Comedy Channel, Nick-at-Nite, SciFi channel, etc., or are they British based channels?

They're mostly either US channels or European or British versions of US channels, but there are a few British cable channels too.

I'd been under the impression lately that the BBC had resorted to commercials. I guess that was a misconception based on scant evidence.

The BBC doesn't take paid commercials, but it does seem to run an awful lot of "self-commercials" these days -- not just trailers, but "isn't the BBC great" sort of messages.

Shorter? Most US commercials are 30s or 15s, at about a 2:1 ratio. How much shorter can you feasibly get?

The advertising breaks are shorter. A programme in a 30-minute slot will have 25 minutes of content on ITV, or 29 on the BBC. I think in the US it's typically more like 22 minutes.

Peter

How come Keen Eddie has got his dog past the UK's Draconian quarantine laws? Surely the pooch would have to be in kennels for six months, like everybody elses.

in the US it's typically more like 22 minutes

That is correct.

I have a question for the US people, though. How does Cartoon Network get away with their wonderful commercial scheduling? So far, from what I've seen, every Cartoon Network show has a single, normal length commercial break in the middle of the show, then one long one at the end. At least the Adult Swim shows do, but I've seen it during DBZ as well.

I think this is just wonderful. Even if I didn't have Tivo, which means I'm only getting one tiny interruption in my program, that long commercial break at the end gives me time to go do things before the next show comes up, or that show is over sooner and I can go on to other things quicker. I just love it.

How come Keen Eddie has got his dog past the UK's Draconian quarantine laws? Surely the pooch would have to be in kennels for six months, like everybody elses.

That's actually explicitly explained in the series. (There's even a quick flash of ``QUARANTINED'' being stamped on a form with the dog's picture during the opening credits sequence.)

Eddie's Scotland Yard partner is ... weird. (The first thing we really see him do is attend a couples-only leather-optional swingers' party using a female friend of his to gain admittance.) Anyway, one of his ``quirks'' is animal rights. (That's not as weird as some of the others, but it's presented in the same light.) He gets mad at Eddie for bringing the animal to the UK knowing that it'd have to sit in quarantine for six months. (Eddie doesn't really like the dog. It isn't explained why he has it, but I'll bet that it was an old girlfriend's or something. Perhaps even the femme fatale from the first episode who's obviously intended to recur.) So the partner goes down to the quarantine office with Eddie and convinces the officials down there that it's a police dog -- one who was integral in a huge drugs bust a few months prior. Then there's a ``funny'' scene where the whole staff of the quarantine office is having their picture taken with the dog.

So there you go.

I think in the US it's typically more like 22 minutes.

True, except during prime time, when they show fewer higher-paid commercials. They tend to run at about 25 minutes, though it varies a little more than the 22 minutes for everything else, which is fairly rigid.

In an incredibly annoying practice, NBC (at least) has taken to running ``super-size'' episodes of popular sitcoms during sweeps. They're usually 45-minute blocks instead of the regular 30-minute ones. This is so that they can elide their lesser performing programs while at the same time avoiding reruns. They sell it to the viewers as being ``15 more minutes of {Friends|Will and Grace|whatever}''. In reality, the episode itself is only slightly longer, with more commercials taking up 90% of the slack. Nice, huh?

I'm not convinced, those rescue organisations' dogs that do wonderful stuff at earthquakes have to do six months when they get back.
I'm not sure whether it helps, but an episode of 24 shows in 45 minutes on the BBC, because it has no commercial breaks.

Unfortunately, these days, programme breaks are filled with ersatz commercials promoting other BBC services and programmes, which, personally, drive me bananas.

To entice us to "go digital", 24 and other programmes are shown on the main channels, immediately followed by the next week's episode on a free-to-air digital channel.

I was going to reply fully to your last posting, but I reckoned it was an interesting dialogue between Andy and yourself.

I'm not convinced, those rescue organisations' dogs that do wonderful stuff at earthquakes have to do six months when they get back.

Well, it's not exactly presented as reality. It's a highly stylized show with a good amount of quirkiness and humor. It blatantly borrows heavily from Guy Ritchie's pre-Madonna work. In fact, the actor playing Eddie looks not entirely unlike Jason Statham.

programme breaks are filled with ersatz commercials promoting other BBC services and programmes

In the US, these are known as promos or house ads. You're the second in this thread to not have a name for them, so I assume they're new enough that folks haven't come up with one on their own yet.

Also (and I don't know if you have these) those tiny ads just before or after the real commercials are done that essentially say ``More Buffy after this!'' are called bumps. And the logo of the station that's omnipresent in the corner of the screen, supposedly but not really noninvasive is called a bug.

Some stations are now advertising for other programs while a real program is on, and they're becoming more invasive than ever. Last night on Keen Eddie, for example, they advertised for a new reality show called Paradise Island (or something like that) and it was an animated logo with the title and some palm trees and when it's going to run that must have taken up nearly a quarter of the screen.

TNN, one of our basic cable channels, soon to be Spike TV, runs a crawl during all of its programming advertising their other programs, and sometimes just displaying useless information. And, even better, in order to not obscure the program, they compress it vertically, making everyone look dumpy, unless they happen to be at an angle, when they end up looking rhomboidal.

I was going to reply fully to your last posting, but I reckoned it was an interesting dialogue between Andy and yourself.

Don't hold back. More voices is better.

an episode of 24 shows in 45 minutes on the BBC

Which confused me slightly last weekend, when I caught an episode (actually two -- next week's episode was on BBC3 immediately afterwards, as boxer says).

Unfortunately, these days, programme breaks are filled with ersatz commercials promoting other BBC services and programmes

Just to clarify: On the BBC these self-ads only occur in-between programmes. On the other channels, the ads are used (US-style) to break the programme into pieces.

The BBC has recently started showing a small self-ad in between the national and local news, which used to be presented as a single block.

These BBC ads are very slickly-produced -- they're much better than almost every other ad in existence.

Exactly. Every time I like a show it is instantly cursed and ends up off the air in no time. So as a rule, I hate all the shows now, doesn't mean I don't watch them though.

I don't know if you have those tiny ads called bumps

Not normally. They seem to be becoming more prevalent -- particularly on satellite and cable channels.

Often, a series of films on a particular channel will be sponsored by a particular advertiser, and they'll get a tiny ad at the beginning/end of each ad break -- Stella Artois have been doing this recently.

And the logo of the station that's omnipresent in the corner of the screen, supposedly but not really noninvasive is called a bug

Again, this is restricted to the satellite and cable channels, but I can see it becoming more prevalent.

an episode of 24 shows in 45 minutes on the BBC

Which confused me slightly

Maybe in the UK it should be called 18?

> Unfortunately, these days, programme breaks are filled with ersatz
> commercials promoting other BBC services and programmes, which, personally, drive me bananas.

Sky One is worst for this - every break has at least one ad telling us just how great they are; that they air big US shows before they're aired in the US; that it's a good thing that they re-run every series of a show twice (morning and evening) in a daily slot, then when they get to the end, just start from the beginning again.

they air big US shows before they're aired in the US

Really? Weird.

How popular is BBC America in the US? Is it mostly watched by ex-pats or does it have more universal appeal?

How do things with very obscure British humor like 'The League of Gentlemen' fare?

They have BBC here? I've never had it on any of the cable/satellite packages I've had (admittedly I only get top 150 channels). I have had some Sky stuff though (in affiliation with Fox, ie.. Fox Sports World)

There are odd shows - stargate comes to mind - that are seen here anything between a week and a few months before the first airing in the US.

Most others are seen over here around the same time or just after the US, but long before they go into syndication in the US.

Sky also show most US sci-fi and cult drama a year or so before it gets onto the UK terrestrial networks - if it gets to them at all.

http://www.bbcamerica.com

Reasonably popular. I get the feeling that BBC America is kinda like a greatest hits album, with a lot of recent popular stuff, and a good smattering of old popular programming.

In the US, we've seen British TV for many years, formerly shown on PBS. That's where most of us saw Doctor Who. (In particular, BBC America only showed Doctor Who for a short while, and then it was only ``Robot'' through ``The Face of Evil'', I believe. I'd been looking forward to Doctor Who, as it hasn't been broadcast in the US for many years, apparently due to Spielberg buying the US rights and then sitting on them.) Anyway, some of us were already familiar with British comedy, so there wasn't too steep a learning curve, if you will. And PBS/BBC and A&E/BBC coproductions of dramas had been happening for years. However, we hadn't seen much pop programming, like Graham Norton, for example. I don't know how well that's doing. The home improvement shows (Trading Spaces, Ground Force, etc.) seem to be doing pretty well, having spawned US equivalents.

I'd guess that it's doing as well as any reasonably sized basic cable channel does, which is, unfortunately, not all that well unless they happen to have a hit orginal series, which is unusual, and doesn't usually affect the rest of their schedule's ratings that much.

Unfortunately, the official ratings organization in the US, Nielsen, doesn't provide ratings free of charge. This has always been very annoying.

Oh, and they do show BBC World News. But it ends up being at 6AM here. They also show a 6PM version, but it's produced in Washington, DC, and is not the exact same thing as in the UK. The 6AM broadcasts are, though, I'm pretty sure.