Friday 28 May 2010

Watching the Eurovision Song Contest in America, Doctor Who and BBC America

So how do you watch the Eurovision Song Contest in America?  Well, you don't.  Not on normal American telly channels, at least.  Previous experience suggests that the only way to get it legally is to stream it live over the internet, by going to Eurovision.tv.  In previous years, the quality has been pretty high for an internet stream.  The main downside is a kind of eery silence where the commentary should be -- it is the direct, no-frills stream with no commentary, no phone-numbers to ring.

I have talked about this in the past over on The Americanization of Emily and so won't repeat myself here except to add that I am tempted this year to hold off a bit.  Sitting indoors and watching Eurovision live, with no British commentary, at three in the afternoon, on the first day of summer, when our pool opens tomorrow, does not somehow feel like the fun it once did, all the more so as this year, for the first time since its return, Doctor Who is not going to be cancelled on BBC1 for Eurovision.  Result!

Somewhat bizarrely, BBC America, on the other hand, which does not show Eurovision, is cancelling its showing of Doctor Who tomorrow night and instead showing repeats of previous episodes, so now creating a three-week time-lag compared to the two-week one they began with.  Who is able to explain the mysteries of BBC America?

11 comments:

Chip said...

It's the Memorial Day weekend: BBC America rightly expects viewing numbers to be way down, so they're burning the day on reruns. Look for yet another delay for Independence Day. Bad for Doctor Who fans; apparently good for advertisers and overall ratings.

Mark Goodacre said...

Thanks for that, Chip. It's interesting how the views on this differ in the UK and the US. In the UK it is assumed that viewing figures will be up on Bank Holiday weekends, Christmas etc., and they have lots of special programming, whereas here it is assumed that people will not want to watch telly on these occasions.

LimitedEmpathy said...

Meh, it's just Memorial Day and Independence day - the two holidays most Americans spend outdoors. However, I am a bit perturbed that I'm not getting a new Doctor Who this week, too.

Mark Goodacre said...

Yeah, kind of makes sense to hold off on good telly if people are not going to watch because outdoors or at the beach. I like the British idea, though, of the family gathering around the set on special occasions to watch Doctor Who, having come in for a bit from the barbeque.

awindram said...

Regarding Who, they could show the most recent 2 parter that's just finished in the UK over the course of one week rather than two as a way of catching up. Another option is to show the final two episodes of the series as one big Who weekend, with the final episodes being shown on successive weekend nights - a la 'the End of Time'.

Also, forgive the bad taste, but I'll shill my blog as you've just written a post about my disappointment with BBC America - I had such high hopes for the channel when I moved to the UK.
http://anthonywindram.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/auntie-and-me/

Mark Goodacre said...

Thanks; great post about BBC America too. I really want to give them my support, and was pleased with the way that they were treating new Who with this two-week-only time-lag, but every other step they take seems designed to annoy the expats.

awindram said...

Thanks for reading the post. Yeah, I should give BBC America credit for treating Who better than the Sci-Fi channel ever did.

Jonathan (a different one) said...

But with this series seeing problems with writing, set and acting qualities oscillating at a fairly low amplitude you can't be getting that het up waiting for them to arrive. Can you?

That said, last week's episode (written by Richard Curtis) was a vast improvement. Bill Nighy is his usual self, but Tony Curran steal the episode.

I'm not holding out much hope for this evening's episode though. It's "starring" James Corden :(

Yours grumpily,
etc.

Mark Goodacre said...

Oh, I think this is one of the best series of Doctor Who ever. Not a dud episode yet, and Vincent and the Doctor particularly strong. Greatly looking forward to the Lodger too; I love James Corden.

Anonymous said...

I am not sure what planet you are all from, Memorial Day weekend is next weekend. Not tonight when the finals for Eurovision are held.

Mark Goodacre said...

Planet 2010, Anonymous!