You need a license to watch TV in UK?!

American TV is pretty good right now, the shows are very well produced, the stories are well written and the acting is top notch. There is a BBC show or two I enjoy (particularly Dr. Who), and one amazing CBC show (Orphan Black).

American TV is putting out some pretty great shows from Blacklist, to Walking Dead to Mr Robot, to The Good Place. I might be willing to pay for these shows if the advertisements disappeared, but given the quality of the content I don't find the advertisements that intrusive.

I haven't had a tv for years and years either*, but back in the dark ages, my dad directed commercials for RKO and later an ad agency. I think a lot of 50's and 60's commercials were excruciating. I'm remembering Anacin, Anacin, Fast Fast Fast Relief, as particularly horrible. Not sure if that was just on radio, think also TV.
On the other hand, there were some I loved, at least at the time. The Herding Cats one (I suppose that was about beer) sticks in memory.

A friend's boyfriend, er, she married him for a while, directed commercials in the SuperBowl ads, back in the day, for some years. I'd gone to the wedding. One of those six degrees of connections things.


*I've long not accumulated a big bank account. Cable is out of my league.
But since it has been long that I've not paid regular US TV any attention, I've probably multiplied my book reading, and nobody yells at me about Anacin, or equivalent.

In hotels I pay extra and then I get to see the Thai ladyboys. I used to get nervous about asking the desk clerk, but I figured, I'll never come back here, who cares?

How do you know what to buy, what's available or what might be better than the inferior product you are using now? Or, are you the type the because you bought it 20 years ago it's still good enough?

I'm betting that, because you live in America and there is no escaping ads, that you've been influenced in some way either by newspaper ads, magazine ads, radio ads, internet ads, subliminal ads, personal ads...

You are talking about yourself.

Huh, I thought I was asking @Krumple a question. That's crazy how I was really just talking about myself!

I, for one, appreciate McGentrix's participation here.

That's nice. So do I. We do not have to agree,

For a smart bloke loads of things shoot over your head. This nasty thread was never about different TV systems it was McGentrix saying look at how shitty Britain and the British people are, aren't we Americans so much superior.

Well you're not. Being an American doesn't give you the right to bully and cajole other nations or tell them what to do or how to behave. If you don't like the way we do things over here then don't bother coming. You won't be missed.

Translation: I will criticize your country all day long, but how dare you do the same to me.

Is it opposite land where you are? I've not started a thread attacking America. All I've done is refuse to touch my forelock and instead stand up to a bunch of bullies who seem to think that because they're American they can tell everyone else what to do.

Nice

You criticize America constantly on a wide variety of subjects, yet you denigrate and bully anyone who dares to try to discuss British politics or culture. The site is amply wallpapered with evidence. This mild-mannered fluff piece of a topic has really shown your character.

If you feel bullied by this topic, some introspection is in order. Your hypocrisy on national criticism is stunning.

Wow. This level of government intervention in my ability to watch TV would really piss me off. Your help to the German-music lady was quite wonderful.

So ,whenever you and someone have a testoster-off, and you snark back at the persons posts, why do you purposely shotgun your response every American in eye shot"?

I was actually learning the intricacies about how the TV systems in our two lands differ.

You and McG hve turned it into a jingoistic HS cheer, where you each take some really silly childish positions in your Ill arguments. just back off, I got everything I need.

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However, my aunt and uncle in Sweden [Södertälje resp. Jönköping] had had satellite tv all their life there (between the 1960's and early 2000's.
It has nothing to do with the EU, though.

This lady who was a Dane was not allowed to have a satellite dish because she was a EU member.
It has nothing to do with EU in that sence, but only that the government only wanted people from far away to be able to listen to their home news and mother tongue.
Probably they thought that the closer the easier it was to listen to radio and get news via newspaper.
This is what I found on google.
Den 31 december 1987 började den reklamfinansierade skandinaviska kanalen TV3 sända via London från satellit. Den nya kanalen var dock inte populär hos den socialdemokratiska regeringen, och flera försök att stoppa sändningarna gjordes genom förslag till lagändringar om bland annat förbud mot parabolantenner. Alltså bröts SVT:s monopol på svensk television även om TV3 vid starten bara nådde en bråkdel av de svenska TV-hushållen. I och med detta återkom diskussionen om att införa reklam i marksänd television. Ett förslag som diskuterades var att tillåta reklam i TV2, men svenska staten valde i stället att upplåta ett tredje marknät åt en helt ny kanal. 1991 började TV4 att sända i marknätet och fick efter några år fler tittare än Kanal 1 och TV2, främst tack vare spelprogrammet "Bingolotto" med Leif "Loket" Olsson som drog den största publiken under stora delar av 1990-talet.

Really it was just a minority of the Swedes, who were watching this TV3. It was mostly because ads were forbidden. it was stopped. The government did not want to discriminate against non EU citizens. It was so few Swedes that were hit by it, the majority did not even know about.
Discriminating laws often or always happens.

It was a parabolantenna which was used for TV3 programs and that is what was not allowed.
Looking for the translation into English it was satellite dish.
Satellit in Swedish is also an antenna.
If Parabol, salellite dish and satellite are the same or not I do not know.

The Danish lady had a Parabol and if some aunts had satellite it probably are two different things.

via google books