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Question: Television in the Global Industry

The Bridge and Life on Mars are supportive of the claim that TV is a global industry. this is because they are proof that television is used by governments to show their country's values and their culture as well as being unconventional in some areas of the world but remain as huge successes.

Firstly, The Bridge, in my opinion is best example of how TV us an industry and at the same time, global. This is because The Bridge is produced by two independent companies, "Nimbus Films", and "Filmlance International", as the second one being owned by the huge company, "21st Century FOX". The two companies are from different countries, Nimbus is from Sweden, and Filmlance is from Denmark. This shows that if countries want and have the resources, they can make a collab and use TV as way to show to the world, not only to other countries, their cultural and historical beliefs. The Bridge is co-financed by Sweden's SVT and the Danish broadcaster DR, both industries are hugely successful in their respective countries, this would make The Bridge be considered a great production that has the investment to be successful not only at the show's original countries, but outside them.

Even though The Bridge fails in some aspects of the criteria for being a prestige TV show, it covers many areas, i.e. discussing serious subjects for the genre, which could also be explored when sent to countries that are not used to their cultural aspects, nor their problems. The show is also a critical acclaim and has a large audience members. The Bridge, as well as Life on Mars, were remade for different international audiences (e.g. there are American, Spanish and Russian versions of Life on Mars, and U.S.-Mexican and Russian-Estonian versions of The Bridge as well as a British-French remake, "The Tunnel"). The fact is that The Bridge was produced in countries where English is not their first language, and despite this, the show was a huge success in English speaking countries that are not used to watch TV shows and films with subtitles. This could suggest that the show was a success in many aspects and the remakes could also suggest that The Bridge became a global industry despite the problems it could face, e.g. British viewers not watch because of the need for subtitles. The Bridge has a 4.1 Million average viewers per episode which shows that the show was a true success. The formula for crime dramas such as The Bridge, led to many remakes, such as the mentioned above which have showed that The Bridge had an enormous impact on TV and that as a product in the global industries' market, it could be considered as a best seller.

On the other hand, Life on Mars was also a good example of TV shows that are used in making a global industry. This is because Life on Mars was produced by "Kudos Film" (Shine TV) to be used by the PSB (Media company funded by taxes/fees and is a social institution), BBC. The show was used by the BBC to distribute the cultural values of the British society, this can be seen by the distinctive British identity on Life on Mars (e.g. as expressed through accents, dialect, iconography, humour and cultural references), and the extent to which the sense of Britishness is able to garner international appeal. Everything was expressed on BBC One, the largest and most known/important of the BBC set of channels, at 09:00 PM, time where families sat to watch their favorite shows. This strategy of time and channel was seen as a success, the show had an audience of 6.8 Million average of spectators. Swedish and Danish viewers, on the other hand, can benefit from the fact that their PSBs have the luxury of being able to ramp up production budgets for their programmings. This means that these productions can reach wider audiences outside the country and subsequently, earn more money and popularity inside and outside the country.

In conclusion, Life on Mars and The Bridge are really supportive to the claim that "Television is a global industry" because their use as weapons by their respective governments to attract wider audiences and at the same time be use to show the countries' cultural values and beliefs to the rest of the world.

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