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Interestingly, FCC censorship regulations (generally) do not apply to cable or satellite television, so theoretically you could probably have a hardcore gay porn channel in a basic cable package. Of course, the outcry would be significant, and no cable or satellite company would even think of trying it.
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US censorship of material, in practice, operates on several tiers. On over-the-air broadcasting, it is very strict. On Basic Cable, it is pretty much the same. On extra-charge cable tiers, a little more is tolerated, with limits set according to the time of day. Premium movie channels allow whatever is allowed in R-rated cinema, with "soft porn" permitted after hours. Higher level premium can pretty much show anything that is legal, by subscription or PPV, provided it is properly labeled with warnings.
For example, you might have noticed that Comedy Central bleeps out language before 10 pm, but the same program can air after 10 pm uncensored. Except for language censorship by the FCC during the 6-am to 10-pm hours, individual stations exercise their own self-censorship, and are unwilling to risk public criticism of program content, to a level of shrill conservatism.
In fact, a WalMart clerk once explained that they display TVs only with taped cartoons running, to avoid the wrath of parents who might complain about the content of programs that their kids might be exposed to while wandering through the electronics department. Like the kids in an episode of "Daria" whose parents blocked all channels except the Weather Channel.
Material from foreign sources would be risked only with assurances that it falls within one of the above criteria, and cable companies don't even trust the Canadians to protect our tender ears from apocrypha.
Anyway, I think most common people only watch their own channels, no matter from what country. ...
This is the case in most places but not necessarily in English-speaking Canada. There, American stations are very popular (on cable or without if you live close enough to the border), and many Canadian networks actually broadcast the exact same shows at the exact same time as the U.S. networks in order to get the viewers counted for their Canadian advertising instead of having the viewers going to ads on the U.S. networks. If you have cable or satellite TV in Canada the American channels are actually replaced with the Canadian channels automatically when they are showing the exact same thing at the same time. You are supposed to be watching NBC Detroit according to your channel selector but what is on the screen is actually CTV Toronto or Ottawa with Canadian commercials.
This is the case in most places but not necessarily in English-speaking Canada. There, American stations are very popular (on cable or without if you live close enough to the border), and many Canadian networks actually broadcast the exact same shows at the exact same time as the U.S. networks in order to get the viewers counted for their Canadian advertising instead of having the viewers going to ads on the U.S. networks. If you have cable or satellite TV in Canada the American channels are actually replaced with the Canadian channels automatically when they are showing the exact same thing at the same time. You are supposed to be watching NBC Detroit according to your channel selector but what is on the screen is actually CTV Toronto or Ottawa with Canadian commercials.
Exactly. The two Canadian satellite providers used to face stiff competition from viewers pirating U.S. satellite content, or from viewers using a U.S. address to subscribe.
Somehow, some way, it seems that Canadian programming is seen as inferior to American programming, even though they (today) show many of the same programs.
One strange thing about Canadian satellite TV: you used (not sure if it is true today) to be able to get the network affiliates of several U.S. cities: at least one for each time zone. Not true in the U.S., where you can only get your local network affiliates. Before they started uplinking all local stations, you used to have to prove that you could not receive local stations with an outdoor antenna.
US censorship of material, in practice, operates on several tiers. On over-the-air broadcasting, it is very strict. On Basic Cable, it is pretty much the same. On extra-charge cable tiers, a little more is tolerated, with limits set according to the time of day. Premium movie channels allow whatever is allowed in R-rated cinema, with "soft porn" permitted after hours. Higher level premium can pretty much show anything that is legal, by subscription or PPV, provided it is properly labeled with warnings.
For example, you might have noticed that Comedy Central bleeps out language before 10 pm, but the same program can air after 10 pm uncensored. Except for language censorship by the FCC during the 6-am to 10-pm hours, individual stations exercise their own self-censorship, and are unwilling to risk public criticism of program content, to a level of shrill conservatism.
In fact, a WalMart clerk once explained that they display TVs only with taped cartoons running, to avoid the wrath of parents who might complain about the content of programs that their kids might be exposed to while wandering through the electronics department. Like the kids in an episode of "Daria" whose parents blocked all channels except the Weather Channel.
Material from foreign sources would be risked only with assurances that it falls within one of the above criteria, and cable companies don't even trust the Canadians to protect our tender ears from apocrypha.
Could you give me a link to the rules? It's that way in practice, true, but I don't think it's de jure for cable channels to censor themselves.
And while over-the-air broadcasters may be circumspect in seeing that a certain set of words do not slip through lest they be charged, the content of the programming often revolves around sex, sex, and sex. Have you watched network TV in the past five years? Almost all sitcoms revolve around sexual humor, and medical dramas like Grey's Anatomy focus as much on who's sleeping with whom as they do medicine. I usually don't watch much network TV, preferring to watch shows over the internet or (in the days when we had it) satellite TV, but back when I did - in the 90's and early 00's - I don't remember network TV being so sexually-oriented, perhaps other than shows like Friends.
I was leafing through the TV-guide the other day, looking at the different television channels. And I was wondering how many channels from countries different then your own you can get?
For example, here in tiny Flanders, you can get the main French, German, English, Italian, Spanish and Dutch channels, as well as some Arabic ones and one Turkish. This with normal digital television.
So I am kinda curious about what channels from abroad you can receive in your country .
I don't know where exactly you are in Flanders, Avondrood, but here is my Foreign TV-channel list for Limburg (Infrax/Telenet)
The Netherlands: NED1 -NED2 -NED3, MTV-dutch, Eurosport-dutch
Germany: ARD, ZDF, WDR
France: France 2, 3
Luxemburg: Arte (German or French)
UK: BBC1, 2, World
Spain: TVE
Portugal: RTP
Italy: RAIuno
Greece: ERT
Turkey: TRT (based in Germany I suppose)
Poland: TV-Polonia
USA: CNN, CNBC
Some others, don't know where they are based: Euronews, National Geographic
Could you give me a link to the rules? It's that way in practice, true, but I don't think it's de jure for cable channels to censor themselves.
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You're right, it is not a rule. The FCC only regulates language and what they regard as obscene images. The rest is done by the cable channels to avoid offending their audience, or even worse, cancelled ad contracts.
I've always felt that self-censorship is worse than official censorship, because nobody ever challenges it.
By the way, there is a thriving film industry in Cuba, and Cuban films regularly win international awards, but it is actually illegal for an American TV outlet to air a film of Cuban origin. (There are a few "Cuban films" produced by emigres in Florida, which are shown in the USA.) I don't think any other "free" country criminalizes the airing of foreign content.
I don't know where exactly you are in Flanders, Avondrood, but here is my Foreign TV-channel list for Limburg (Infrax/Telenet)
(Ik woon momenteel in Oudenaarde en heb ook Telenet )
We don't have the Polish, Portuguese and Greek channels here, although we do have CNN and CNBC (and Arte, of which I didn't know it was based in Luxembourg).
This is the case in most places but not necessarily in English-speaking Canada. There, American stations are very popular (on cable or without if you live close enough to the border), and many Canadian networks actually broadcast the exact same shows at the exact same time as the U.S. networks in order to get the viewers counted for their Canadian advertising instead of having the viewers going to ads on the U.S. networks. If you have cable or satellite TV in Canada the American channels are actually replaced with the Canadian channels automatically when they are showing the exact same thing at the same time. You are supposed to be watching NBC Detroit according to your channel selector but what is on the screen is actually CTV Toronto or Ottawa with Canadian commercials.
Yeah pretty much I would say 90% of our TV is from the States but then we have Re-Runs of Trailer Parks Boys and Corner Gas and they are 100% Canadian and we also allow swearing after 8:00PM but then again it is only on the Canadian broadcast shows... otherwise it is cut up and edited like Die Hard or Rambo IV on spike TV..It is funny Rambo can shoot a persons leg off with a machine gun but on TV all the swear words are edited...
Plus we get some BBC Channels but I wish we got some Aussie channels
(Ik woon momenteel in Oudenaarde en heb ook Telenet )
We don't have the Polish, Portuguese and Greek channels here, although we do have CNN and CNBC (and Arte, of which I didn't know it was based in Luxembourg).
Arte - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arte is based in Strasbourg, and it's franco-german.
It's because of the immigrants that we have Polish, Portuguese and Greek Channels.
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