Why in USA you can only see american tv channels and not channels form other part of the world?

Question

I was living in LA in a house with nearly 300 th channels but none of them from other country but USA?
Is this a way goverment control citizens minds not leting them know what is the real reality outside?
PS: In my country, Uruguay, we can not only see national channels but also American, Argentinian, Mexican, Spanish, French, German,etc,etc, so we can see other points of view, and how things really happens in other part of our world.

Answer 1

That's a good question. I guess one reason would be that no American would really watch the foreign channels. People in other parts of the world can usually speak more than one language, most Americans can't, and don't want to. So we watch what we're used to; American shows. Censorship may also be an issue; they can't show certain things that might appear on a foreign program. Oh well.

Answer 2

One reason why is because most Americans don't care about TV from other countries. Part of the reason why is they only speak one language, English. French, German, and Spanish speaking TV would be irrelevant to them. Non-English programming is a premium in the U.S. and only available at a price.

In many other countries, you can only get local TV channels unless you have a satellite dish. I have lived in four different countries and visited at least two dozen others, and most of those countries had only local TV channels. Even if you have a dish, you may not be able to get the channels you want. If you go to the page below, you can see one satellite company's offerings. I wish satellite dish companies in other countries offered this many international options.

http://www.idishnetwork.com/programming_international.php

I don't think the U.S. government controls TV programming options. It is purely driven by market forces. If there was a huge market for Chinese language TV, then providers would be offering more Chinese language TV, but the truth of the matter is most Americans don't speak Chinese and could care less about Chinese language TV programming.

On the other hand, there is a huge market for American TV in other countries, but governments pass laws limiting what programming is allowed. (For example, in countries I've lived in, it is illegal to program your satellite receiver to get U.S. porn channels. I'm glad these governments are wise in this.)

In some instances, governments ban the viewing of U.S. news channels for fear of U.S. "propaganda". Yet, in the U.S., if someone is willing to pay for it, they can get whatever news channel their heart desires. Again, in the U.S., it is an issue of economics and market forces, not censorship.

Answer 3

Shop around the cable companies. Some of them carry other countries. My neighbors have a 12-station Arabic language package, for instance, from 7 countries in the middle east.

Mostly it is supply and demand. If no one wants the BBC or Mexican Soap Operas or Chinese Sports, the cable company won't offer it.

Answer 4

Because TV channels are regulated advertising markets - you wouldn' t go to Africa to buy dish detergent, cars, or whatever they are marketing. And it's the same in all other countries.

If you got a 5 or 6 foot satellite dish, you could get other countries - that weren't scrambled.

You can watch, though mostly news, international channels on the web, or download WinAmp and search for them.

Answer 5

Well I live in the USA and I can view Japanese, Chinese, Mexican and British channels. As a rule I automatically block out all Spanish language channels off my receiver.

Answer 6

I'm amazed that this is so... I would have thought the multi-channel services would include TV from other countries, firstly because so many Americans have roots in other countries or have immigrated from other countries, and secondly because it's pretty important to know what the rest of the world is up to!

Answer 7

It is marketing. Television ads are aired to move product, not to entertain. Understand, many of the EU nations are smaller then some of our states, so there are overlapping marketing boundaries. That is not the case in the US. We are a damn big nation. Having said that however, some British Ads, and Spanish adds (re-dubbed in English) do make it here if the product is available in the regional viewing area.

Answer 8

That depends on the type of service you have. Antennas will pick up whatever has been broadcast within range of the receiver. Cable services will offer packages that customers want the most. If they don't want international channels, they won't be on the schedule.

Answer 9

Get satellite TV and you can watch foreign channels. I have cable and I get 3 foreign channels and could have more if I wanted them.

Answer 10

The FCC regulates communications including television in the US.