More Americans Watching International TV

If you love international media as much as we do — and if you’re here, you probably do, or you at least want to learn more — you’ll be pleased to know that you’re not alone.

(Well, you know you’re not alone, because you’ll always have us, but now we’re all less alone).

Food? Check. Computer streaming kdramas? Check. This is me just about any weekend.

USA Today published an interesting story on the rising popularity of international media in the United States. And we’re talking more than just Canadian and British content, the latter of which we’ve been importing from across the pond for decades. Its exclusive focus is on the Internet’s role in American access to international media. The growing numbers of international shows on well-known sites like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube are all mentioned, but what really got me smiling (and, yes, if I’m honest, jumping up and down a little bit inside) is coverage of sites like DramaFever, Viki, and Crunchyroll, all of which I visit on a regular basis.

While the article acknowledges that Asian media like Korean dramas and Japanese anime is at the forefront, it mentions television and movies from all over the world, like what’s found on Hulu Latino and YouTube’s iROKOtv (a channel for Nigerian movies that I totally have to check out now).

We covered similar points to the USA Today article in our piece on online piracy; namely, that piracy has motivated international companies to make their content available online in North America at around the same time as it’s available in their country of origin. Its popularity might be changing the way these companies view their product distribution.

All in all, it’s a fascinating read. I was especially interested by stories from the founders of sites like DramaFever and iROKOtv, about how they got their sites up and running. I also love the behind-the-scenes glimpse of the Viki subtitling process; the site’s one of my favorites for streaming because it really promotes a user-community atmosphere. My favorite part, however, has to be the explanation of why people are watching these shows: because they’re good. More and more Americans are acknowledging that the best entertainment doesn’t have to come from our country, and I couldn’t be happier.

You can read the USA Today story here. What do you think about what it has to say? What have your own experiences using the Internet to access content from around the world been like? Let us know in the comments below.

John McDermott

Posted March 29, 2013 at 12:49 PM

It makes me happy knowing that the walls are coming down. You know, in the way that watching each others shows helps to understand our neighbors in the way that the news or Rosetta Stone can’t. It gives me hope, also, for better television all around. (It definitely sends the message that people want to watch something other than reality television even to the point of searching out non native speaking shows. (it also thrills me that it means people are reading, albeit subtitles, but at least they are reading. ( I love watching even American shows subtitled because it helps me to understand what they’re talking about and absorb the story better.)))

But back to understanding each other, I think that’s super important. I know we’ve discussed adopting slang and accents from other countries as a means of communicating a bit clearer. But I think watching shows from countries not native to the viewer helps to understand that culture and clear up any preconceived notions, especially negative ones. And understanding each other helps to make the world that much more peaceful to live in.

As for better TV I was reading about how Doctor Who doesn’t have a writers room. In a sense they have a summit to discuss the season and what the end game is but it’s more or less, “write something cool and we’ll make it fit in” rather than say Supernatural, where there is a summit too but then every week the writers come together to break the story for that week as a team discussing how it fits in with last weeks episode and what emotional moments need to happen and pushing it further along the arc and then given to a writer or two to write it. It’s a bit more team work, it seems, in the states.

Now I live in South Texas and we have a very strong Mexico influenced culture and we even get Mexican television and even though I don’t speak Spanish the show both humors and perplexes me. In America no show would be at turns overtly serious and then have a very clearly elderly man playing a trouble making young boy for comedic moments, but Spanish television does.

Joss Whedon once said something about how in America movies and television a bird may die but in China that bird may sing a song and do a dance and paint a picture before dying and it’s totally normal and accepted. I think there is a lot to learn from our neighbors in not only how they live their lives but also in how they make their movies and television, and we can blend that into our own making for better television.

So, yes, good job people watching something outside your comfort zones and embracing the culture of other peoples! May we all be better for it.


Angela

Posted March 30, 2013 at 4:59 AM

I’m so glad it makes you happy too! Not that I thought it wouldn’t, but the more, the merrier.

My favorite thing is how at the end of my deconsting gangnam article, I made a point that the popularity of the song, like it or hate it, might be disproving the one-way “west to the rest” idea of cultural dissemination. There was a part of me that was nervous that it wouldn’t be true, that gangnam would go out and that’s it, and Americans would only care about Hollywood. So seeing this article made me so happy. It made the good point that a lot of North American-based viewing of international media is from expats trying to access media from their homes, but it also said there are a lot of Americans watching too.

I am with you 100% on how important and valuable it is for us to watch media from other countries. I’m actually working on an editorial on the topic; basically, expanding our website’s short “why do we do what we do?” point into an article-length exploration of why one should watch television and shows from around the world. And you’ve brought up the more important of my two main points: because it’s educational, but not in a boring way (though I’m a NOVA addict so maybe I’m not the best judge), but in a necessary, vital, but still entertaining, way to learn more about other peoples’ cultures, thoughts, and points of view.

I know I’m so glad people are reading subtitles! For me it’s not just about “yay, reading!” but also proving that people have a willingness to put in a little extra work, because subtitles are extra work. But that they consider whatever they’re watching worth it, and that’s so wonderful and exciting.

That’s so interesting/cool that you get tv from Mexico where you live. I mean we have like one channel (or did, before we stopped getting cable) that has some shows, but it sounds like you get more than that, and that’s really neat.

I’m all for us learning from each other and blending that into our media and again, proving that Hollywood/America thinks it has things to learn from the rest of the world, not the other way around. Fantastic point.