American Television

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I've been trying to figure out how the system works over there. I mean, you've got like 500+ channels, where I have to settle with about 250 tops (but then again, I have a digital tv decoder. Without it, I'd have about 35 channels to choose from). Now I know that some of those require a subscription, but how many of those do you guys have? And what if I came to the US, bought a tv and had to start from scratch? Which channels would I have?

Digital cable usually goes up to 999 but some of the channels aren't used. The 900s are just music channels tho but they have pictures of album covers.

Yeah, that's similar to what I have at home, where the Channels from 600 till 699 are Porn Channels and 700 onwards are Music Stations. Plus the unused Channel numbers and all.

I have basic cable which provides me with 70 channels, most of which I don't watch.

Let's see.. first there's the "local channels" that broadcast over the air. If you happen to live in the right spot in or near a large city you might be able to get some of those. If you're lucky you may get 5 of those. People used to put huge antennas on their roof to get them before cable took over. Now, people usually don't watch it that way. The next step up is to get basic cable. For the minimum price you get those 5 local channels plus a few more. Then comes extended basic, which is 30 or so channels. Then comes digital cable, which is a couple hundred channels plus some for music. At this point you can add premium channels which are generally movie channels that show the movies a couple of months after they come out on DVD. Or they're soft porn. There's also channels where you can buy the rights to see one specific movie for one day. Sort of like getting it from a rental store.

You can also get a small satellite dish which is similar to digital cable but cheaper and sometimes with even more channels and better quality.

I have news for you. You are Dutch, and "Deal or No Deal" has come to America. What do you think of that?

I actually had to google that, but now I know that you're talking about the show that is called 'Miljoenenjacht' (On the hunt for millions) here. An Endemol production like Fear Factor and Big Brother. The formula of the programming is pretty simple but interesting because any kind of person could cash in on lots of money. It was a great succes here (still is, but not as big as before it switched to another channel) and 'll probably find an audience in The States.

Howie Mandel is the host here in the US. The show is getting good ratings here. The show is running for one week now, and depending on whether the ratings stay the same, they will bring it back after the 2006 Winter Olympics.