# What's the connection between PBS and BBC? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 10, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680 "2005-04-10T18:01:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TheMadHun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@TheMadHun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMadHun)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680/1 "2005-04-10T18:01:02Z")
Why does PBS run so many British shows? Do they have an exclusive deal? I presume origianlly PBS got them cheap because the regular networks and cable channels don’t want them. But since they are now a staple of the TV lineup, it’s hard to imagine nobody else would bid on any. And why are they always shown many years after production? Why wouldn’t they simply be simulcast, or just run a year later, when they are running as repeats in the UK? ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680/2 "2005-04-10T18:05:01Z")
Pretty much the same reason your local Fox affiliate plays _Friends_ 3 times a day - they paid for the right to do so. > [@](#): > > But since they are now a staple of the TV lineup, it’s hard to imagine nobody else would bid on any. Not to me - too many of them are too Brit-specific, and may require actual thought and/or attention span to watch - both things that aren’t that important to American TV execs. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680/3 "2005-04-10T18:25:21Z")
Just me, but Doesn’t BBC programing air without commercials? It would be hard to chop up a BBC program to fit commercials in US. Also the same for BBC programing on Nickelodeon/Disney ETC ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680/4 "2005-04-10T18:33:53Z")
Yeah, the BBC is ad-free. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680/5 "2005-04-10T19:30:15Z")
BBC America will typically run a half-hour show in a forty minute timeframe, to allow time for commercials. I’d like to think that they don’t cut up the show otherwise, but can’t say for sure. PBS doesn’t have commerical breaks, so the thirty-minute Britcoms may work better there. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680/6 "2005-04-10T20:00:45Z")
As for how cheap they are, I suppose it’s a matter of perspective. Their presence on your local PBS affiliate allows them to remind you umpteen hundred times during pledge season that they pay extra money to acquire the rights to “Red Dwarf” or “As Time Goes By”, and it costs horrible amounts of money, so please cough up if you want to keep seeing it … ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680/7 "2005-04-10T20:30:52Z")
[hijack] What’s the name of that show with Dame Judy Dench and whats-his-name? I love that show, but I always manage to turn it on just after it starts, and I don’t see the name of the show at the beginning, and its not in the credits. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680/8 "2005-04-10T20:34:46Z")
> [@+MDI](#): > > Yeah, the BBC is ad-free. It may be ad free…but don’t y’all pay so much a year for the right to watch it? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680/9 "2005-04-10T20:57:55Z")
> [@CynicalGabe](#): > > [hijack] > > What’s the name of that show with Dame Judy Dench and whats-his-name? I love that show, but I always manage to turn it on just after it starts, and I don’t see the name of the show at the beginning, and its not in the credits. “As Time Goes By” ---
**Author:** ![fortytwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f9ae1b/32.png) [@fortytwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fortytwo)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680/10 "2005-04-10T21:11:34Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > It may be ad free…but don’t y’all pay so much a year for the right to watch it? Correct. ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Side_of_the_Floyd)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680/11 "2005-04-10T21:51:08Z")
If my Sheridan were reading this thread, he’d be appalled. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680/12 "2005-04-10T23:00:31Z")
First of all, the BBC is not the only British television network. There are four British broadcast networks (last time I checked, anyway) - BBC1, BBC2, ITV, and Channel 4. All of them occasionally are shown on PBS. (There are also some British satellite networks, but I don’t know if any of their shows have been shown on American TV.) From the late 1960’s to the early 1990’s, PBS was the only national market for British TV shows. There actually were some British programs shown on the commercial networks in the early to mid-1960’s. _The Avengers_ and _The Prisoner_ are the only ones that I remember. The only other British program that was shown a lot in the U.S. after that time on something other than PBS was _The Benny Hill Show_, which was syndicated on many local channels in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Then the American commercial networks quit showing British TV. PBS became the only market in the U.S. for all British TV shows. Not only did it show some British shows, but some of the things shown on PBS are actually PBS/BBC co-productions (sometimes with Canadian or Australian backing too). Most of the British programs shown on PBS are shown in the U.S. within a year of their British showing. Some of them are considered classics now and are rerun. Sometimes I’m baffled as to why they have become popular. Apparently _Are You Being Served?_ has a large fan base in the U.S. I don’t understand why, since it’s a rather mediocre sitcom. By the early 1990’s there were enough cable channels that there are now several that do some British TV shows. There’s BBC America, which does only BBC shows, and there’s A & E, which does a fair amount of British shows. Some of the other cable channels do a little British TV also. One of the reasons that PBS continues to do British shows is that it’s cheaper than making their own shows. PBS has a much lower budget to make shows than the commercial networks, so they have to save money by buying programs as cheaply as possible. ---
**Author:** ![Dusty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@Dusty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dusty)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680/13 "2005-04-10T23:01:55Z")
> [@Dewey Finn](#): > > BBC America will typically run a half-hour show in a forty minute timeframe, to allow time for commercials. I’d like to think that they don’t cut up the show otherwise, but can’t say for sure. It seems rather random. Some shows have a 40 minute block, as you describe. Others have a regular 30 minute block and have bits here and there cut out for commercials (like _Changing Rooms_, for example). I’m not sure how the longer shows work. Is anything cut from them or are they actually a little shorter and the left over time is what’s used for commercials? _Waking the Dead_, for example, is run as a two hour show. Is that how it was intended, or was it meant to be a series of hour long two-parters? Perhaps time for commercials is got from combining them and excising the first credits and second show recap. ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680/14 "2005-04-10T23:15:59Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > First of all, the BBC is not the only British television network. There are four British broadcast networks (last time I checked, anyway) - BBC1, BBC2, ITV, and Channel 4. We now sport a fifth channel - originally and imaginatively called Channel Five (inconveniently, there was already a well-established video company of the same name: presumably the broadcast people had to buy them out). The name was later changed to “five” [sic - trendy lower case]. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680/15 "2005-04-10T23:24:09Z")
ITV, Channel Four, and five are all commercial networks that have commercials in the shows, unlike BBC 1 and BBC 2. (Um, have I remembered that correctly?) BBC 1 and BBC 2 are paid for by an annual licensing fee. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680/16 "2005-04-11T05:27:25Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > ITV, Channel Four, and five are all commercial networks that have commercials in the shows, unlike BBC 1 and BBC 2. (Um, have I remembered that correctly?) BBC 1 and BBC 2 are paid for by an annual licensing fee. Channel 4, while having adverts, isn’t commercial - it’s publicly-owned, under remit from Parliament. It’s also worth pointing out that there’s now eight BBC channels - but there’s no room on the analogue system for the others. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680/17 "2005-04-11T06:02:27Z")
> [@CynicalGabe](#): > > [hijack] > > What’s the name of that show with Dame Judy Dench and whats-his-name? I love that show, but I always manage to turn it on just after it starts, and I don’t see the name of the show at the beginning, and its not in the credits. And what’s-his-name is Geoffrey Palmer. ---
**Author:** ![6\_6\_6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e0b2c6/32.png) [@6\_6\_6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6_6_6)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680/18 "2005-04-11T06:22:21Z")
Sorry **Wendell Wagner** , your comment _There’s BBC America, which does only BBC shows_ is not quite right. They also have ITV shows e.g. Cold Feet and Channel 4 shows e.g. Graham Norton. ---
**Author:** ![Gaius.Cornelius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b487fb/32.png) [@Gaius.Cornelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaius.Cornelius)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680/19 "2005-04-11T07:11:53Z")
The BBC is paid for by a so-called licence fee. Essentially, it is a tax of about £100 per household which you can only avoid by not having a TV. There is a discount if you are blind! The BBC is ad free and as a consequence imported programs can result in quite a few unfilled minutes every hour. There is also a problem with BBC programs that the corporation expect to sell abroad - quite a large proportion of the output - these programs have to be shortened to allow the purchaser to insert advertising. The scheduling problems that this causes are solved by having many programs start at odd times; that is not on the hour or half hour. In addition the schedule in padded with shorts, news buletins, and a considerable amount of BBC self-promotion. Terestrial digital TV has proven very popular in the UK. Terestrial TV has had a difficult start, but has ended up in the hands of the BBC which promote it heavily. The BBC now operates some seven channels two of which are just for children. Ad-free children’s TV is great - thank goodness for Aunty Beeb! ---
**Author:** ![Galanthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Galanthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galanthus)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680/20 "2005-04-11T09:40:50Z")
Another voice in favour of ad free childrens TV … it’s nice to to let the little one wtach it if she wants without worrying that she’s being indoctrinated into McDonalds and My Little Pony! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-connection-between-pbs-and-bbc/298680.md?page=2)