Ordinary Gweilo

Just before Christmas, the SCMP’s Post Magazine had an article moaning about how long it takes for many top US & UK TV shows to make their way on to our local channels.  Which is true, but all things considered I think we should be grateful for what we get. 

English is an official language in Hong Kong and 2 of the 4 terrestrial channels are required to broadcast in English.  TVB Pearl and ATV World provide Chinese subtitles and Cantonese dubbing (through Nicam) in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience, but it is the Cantonese-language terrestrial channels (TVB Jade and ATV Home) that get the big ratings and make money.  Pearl and World only exist because of the conditions imposed on the two broadcasters by the government. and it does show (for example in the way that commercials are dropped in at seemingly random points in most shows).

However, I do feel that these two channels are much better now than 10 years ago.  Back then, Pearl and World had almost identical schedules, both with movies from 9.30 – 11.30 – but very second-rate films, and repeated in a seemingly endless loop every few months.  Now ATV shows more documentaries, and TVB has more drama series, with films restricted to weekends.  Comedies get very little airtime, apparently because rating are so poor.

I’m not an expert on US TV shows, so I can’t really comment on what we are missing, but we do get shows such as Desperate Housewives, Nip/Tuck, CSI, House and Monk on the terrestrial channels, and if you add in the channels on Now and Cable (Star World, AXN, BBC Entertainment, HBO), there is a reasonable choice of English language TV.

BBC Entertainment seems to be better than BBC Prime, with the odd current show (Extras series 2) scattered in amongst the mainly older programmes.  HBO seem equally reluctant to give us current shows, presumably because they can sell them first to other channels, and although Star World ought to have access to shows from Fox and Sky, they don’t seem to take advantage of this.   Star World has some very old shows ("brand new episodes of Frasier" that must be 5 or 6 years old) and others that have already been shown on Pearl, and yet they manage to broadcast American Idol and Rock Star within hours of their US transmission.  I don’t really watch AXN, but they seem to have some US shows before the terrestrial channels.

As a general rule, TVB Pearl seem to broadcast shows about 6-18 months after they first appeared in the States, though ATV manages to run Survivor and Letterman within a day or two of their original broadcast, and TVB has The Apprentice a few weeks behind.  Both channels also have US network evening news shows live (or near-live) at breakfast time, which is proof that it can be done if they can be bothered.   

The other annoying thing is the way shows are censored.  The terrestrial channels are subject to government rules that limit what they can show during the evening, but I believe that they do have the option of an ‘M’ certificate for stuff shown late at night, although they don’t seem to take advantage of this.  The Sopranos is currently on TVB Pearl at around midnight, but it comes with a PG certificate, with cuts to achieve this.  Sorry, but I’d rather buy the DVD and watch it as it was intended. 

Channels such as HBO, BBC, Star, etc., have a different problem.  As they are available throughout Asia they have to satisfy the requirements of the governments in Singapore, Malaysia and elsewhere, which means quite heavy censorship.

HBO do have a solution (of sorts) for this.  About a year ago, when the HBO-BBC co-production Rome appeared here (very shortly after it was shown in the States, and before the BBC broadcast it in the UK), they created a new channel to show it uncut (on Now Broadband TV only).  The channel has now been give a name (HBO Signature +1), and you have to pay a few dollars extra to get it. However, the choice of movies on this channel (at least currently) is not particularly inspiring, and their other channels are only available in censored form, so it is not clear whether this will be more than a token gesture. 

Anyway, here’s the thing.  Considering the size of the audience here, I think we get a very good selection of English-language TV.  We have to wait, and it’s very annoying to have shows censored and for those stupid commercial breaks, but it could be a whole lot worse.