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.