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The Inflow of American Television Fiction on European Broadcasting Channels Revisited

Hedwig de Smaele

Empirical research in the 1970s and 1980s revealed the dominant position of American fiction on European television, in consequence of which the term `Dallasification of television content' was launched. By the end of the 1990s the situation had not changed drastically. The results of our programme analysis from 1997, in which the origin of films and series on 36 public and commercial channels from six European countries was traced, confirmed (1) the importance of fiction on European television, (2) the dominant position of American fiction and (3) the limited distribution of European fiction in Europe. This is not self-evident considering the efforts of the European Union since the end of the 1980s to counter these tendencies (quota for European productions, support measures for the audiovisual industry). Our findings also clearly confirm the distinction between public and commercial channels, according to which public channels broadcast a wider range of national, non-national European and American fiction. American series cannot touch the popularity of domestic series, which oust the American series in prime-time on both public and commercial channels. The American movie, however, is predominant also in prime-time. US fiction succeeds in breaking through all cultural barriers in Europe, whereas in the distribution of European fiction, language and cultural proximity continues to play a decisive role.

Key Words: Americanization • European audiovisual policy • fiction • origin of fiction • programme analysis • television content

European Journal of Communication, Vol. 16, No. 1, 51-76 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/0267323101016001003


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