It seems like BBCA may be a bonafide competitor to the SyFy Channel when it comes to luring the sci-fi tv audience,

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/04...-the-curb/90239

But they won't be a REAL sci-fi competitor until they have professional wrestling on their schedule.

LOL! I forget, is BBCA available as a "basic" cable channel or is it only available in some parts of the US or maybe only some cable carriers have it?

The short answer is, I don't know if it's basic or not, but I think it varies from cable provider to cable provider. Some may have it in their basic packages, others may only include it as part of an expanded group, and others may not have it at all.

For me, I think I get it as part of an expanded group. I get Russian TV (RTV), an extra History Channel, and BBCA, among other things, as part of one group, I think. I even get BBCA in HD, which is nice. Top Gear in HD looks pretty good.

Thanks for that info Arthonon, it seems to make good sense.

I find it most curious that how as SyFy deviates more and more from its original niche programming, it seems that BBCA is coming in and filling that niche that SyFY has mostly abandoned.

The Brits seem to have more interest in science fiction programming than the U.S., I guess.

I was in the caribbean a couple of months ago and the TV channels available in our room were mainly from the USA. One of the highlights of the holiday was that BBCA had Star Trek TNG on every evening at 9pm.
It's ages since I've seen TNG on our domestic channels.

The only annoying thing was that they made a 40 minute program last an hour by padding it out with adverts.

I was amazed at how much Top Gear was censored on BBCA though...

ROTFL, that's awesome. SyFy is only good at taking shows and destroying them over time. If a show ends up on SyFy, it's been relegated to it's own special level in hell.

It's an interesting dichotomy because it seems that there is more genuine interest for smart sci-fi in the UK compared to the US but its usually the US networks that have enough money to fund such shows.

LOL, even then the SyFy channel would beat BBCA when it comes to playing horrible low budget sci-fi movies.

Looks like BSG will be shown on BBC-A this Summer.
Doctor Who is going well, although I didn't think I'd like the newer guy. There's no replacement for Tennant, Eccleston was also almost as good, but I'm liking the new guy now too. A lot of "convenient" plot turns, but simply an enjoyable show with a loads of imagination.

I guess you don't know why shows are 45 minutes in the first place then? Having 15 minutes of commercials has been standard for about 25 years. Prior to that, it was 10 minutes per hour (look at the original ST series or even the early years of Moonlighting). In fact, that's not the standard anymore. I think the standard length of an episode of BSG in its last couple of years was 41 minutes. Also, TV shows are no longer 4 acts, they're now 5. So instead of the old way of commercials at the 15, 30, and 45 minute marks (plus between shows) and just making them longer (because people might leave or flip channels), they keep the breaks the same length but now do them at 12, 24, 36, and 48 minutes and just run one show's end credits right into the next's opening.

Another casualty is opening credits/themes. Older shows had openings lasting as long as 90 seconds, then they dropped to 45 seconds, and now they have maybe a 10 second blip with the name of the series, then the opening credits are shown over the actual show. Lots of them also have the end credits running underneath as the show wraps up, especially the 30 minute shows, because they're down to just over 20 minutes!



The Jedi Master

Yeah I noticed the difference in episode length between different shows as I watched them on dvd for the first time and subsequent times. X-Files episodes were roughly about 45 minutes during its entire run, Babylon 5 eps are also about 45 minutes, ST: TOS episodes are 50 minutes and like Jedi Master said, BSG episodes by season 3 and 4 were about 41 minutes and change. Of all the 1 hour dramas I've seen on dvd, BSG definitely has the shortest eps.

It's been nice lately on BBC-A that they've been showing some full length Top Gear episodes on Mondays. 1hr 20 min. It was obvious before that they had trimmed a lot to get down to 1 hr, often cutting some nice parts from bits and interviews, and creating really bad transitions. Good to see the longer eps now to see what we've been missing.

...I strongly urge people to download the original Top Gear eps from Usenet then.

It's also happening in the Netherlands, these ridiculously long commercial breaks. Wish people would do something against it. Protests, a law, whatever. It's my time they're stealing with their winged women's convenience thingies, cars I don't want to buy, etc. etc. etc.

Speaking of BBC America, the season 6 premiere of Dr. Who had great numbers!

http://airlockalpha.com/node/8454/doctor-who-struggles-in-uk-soars-in-us.html

Actually, people HAVE done something about it...the numbers of people watching network shows has plummeted. With over 300 million people in the US, few shows get over 10 million viewers. Most get under 5 million now.

The reaction to this drop in ratings has been to increase the length and number of commercial breaks.





The Jedi Master