Can you believe it? Britain now exports £980 million worth of TV formats every year. In the old days it used to be steel and tin we'd give the world, but now it's talent shows and celebs eating kangaroo genitals! Okay, that's not really fair -- there's a fair amount of drama that international broadcasters are keen to buy, too -- such as Spooks, Torchwood and Doctor Who (which is sold to 93 countries.)
I find it amusing that Poirot, Miss Marple and Midsomer Murders are apparently very popular around the world -- but never underestimate how much those cozy shows reaffirm foreigner perceptions of quaint Olde England. 120 countries buy the trifling Inspector Morse spin-off Lewis alone! More understandable is the appetite for Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares and Masterchef (which has proven particularly popular in Australia).
America remains the prime importer of British formats, buying 36% of our TV exports -- such as American Idol, Supernanny, Hell's Kitchen, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Top Gear, Life On Mars, Primeval, I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here, and Dancing With The Stars. But, Australia and New Zealand are growing in stature, fuelled by the fact they purchased a lot of UK television to fill schedule gaps created by the US writers' strike. Rounding out the global picture: Asia (up 57%), eastern-Europe (up 43%), Canada (up 43%) and France (up 29%).
I know we have a fairly broad international readership here, so what's the feeling about the British TV format "invasion"? Do you even notice/care that a format came from the UK? Do most of our formats only work with the key British talent involved (i.e. would Hell's Kitchen and American Idol have been as big without Ramsay and Cowell?) And what about the success rate of translating UK formats? Dancing With The Stars is a worthy remake of Strictly Come Dancing (and superior in a few areas), but the I'm A Celebrity remake was savaged by US critics (are Ant n' Dec that integral to its success?), and Top Gear has been successfully remade but the original is the undoubted top dog (currently seen by a mindspinning 350 million people every week.)
