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World, 1 Slayer
After receiving a lot of e-mails from all around the world, I decided to develop this section to give some practical information to all the fans, so that you can see what's going on the other side of your borders. I try to get all the channel/schedule/season data too, because I'm sure some of you will travel and that would be sad you miss your show... (okay you might not understand the dialogues if you don't speak the local language but you will have the images... better than nothing!).
So far I have information on 12 countries from 5 continents (Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania). I hope to get more... also if you happen to live in Artica I'd really like to get the 6th continent... I'll also appreciate if you know some information I didn't put here or if you watch Buffy in a country that isn't in this list if you could tell me the information (or part of it) that I write down here.
Australia
Network: Channel Seven and private TV carriers (like "Austar").
Schedule: Tuesday, 10:25 pm ( 7:30pm on Fox 8, for Austar)
Comments: I couldn't tell you for how long the Australians fans have been at war with the Channel 7 but it lasted a while... Australians fans should be done with season 4 in September.
Rural parts of Australia might have to get private channels to get a good reception. In Victoria, Austar seems to be doing the job right, note that they are airing Buffy with a 1 season difference.
Mischieves: Channel 7: show cancellation, abusive re-scheduling, uneven broadcasting. Hopefully for them the show is back on and apparently their campaign was efficient. The bad news is that they still haven't been heard concerning the schedule. For more detail on the situation follow the links below.
Campaigns:
Canada
Network: YTV
Schedule: Saturday, 7:00 pm (E.T.???)
Comments: I don't know of any problems the fans had with this network. And at least they broadcasted ALL the episodes in time.
Caribbean countries
Sorry for this broad title but I have only general info over this region. Ill be glad to make separate cases if I get country-specific information.
Network: WGN (from Chicago, through satellite dish)
Schedule: 7pm or 8pm depending on seasonal time changes (Tuesday since it's from an American network)
Comments: Apparently only satellite permitt to get the show on TV. I was told Bahamas had the show on cable but I have no information on networks nor schedule. The satellite reception has only one problem: sometimes the satellite transmition is down, so no Buffy....
England
All this text below is from e-mails exchanged with Mark Lacey (an English Buffy fan). Since he's really complete in his resume (and he allowed me too) I just reproduce the text down here. I can't do much more than telling you what's going on, but if you are English or just living in England, and you start a campaign let me know I'll advertize for it. (NOTE this was written last year, I had no news of what's up with English satellite TV & Buffy...)
Network: Sky 1 (cable) & BBC 2 (regular network)
Schedule: None right now....
Mischieves: "Guess what we still haven't seen all of season 2 over here ! Believe it or not Sky TV who show it over here got around two thirds of the way through series 2 and then stopped it! That was nearly a year ago, they have just started showing it again and guess what again, they have gone back to the beggining of series 2! When they are asked about series 3 the answer is always that it wont be shown for the foreseeable future !! They dont mess around with Friends or the X Files in the same way so why piss us Buffy fans off?"
"Sky TV is a cable/satelite chanel that shows most decent US shows (Friends,Xfiles,DS9,Voyager,South park etc)in the UK before the regular networks get them. Buffy has recently started on the BBC while Sky were not showing it. First of all the showed it on BBC2 which is a channel that hardly anyone watches (like say UPN !) Secondly they showed it at 6-30 pm and cut huge chunks of it out as it was deemed to strong for early evening viewing. Finaly they reached the same episode as Sky had and stopped showing it !! "
So far this is the worse I've seen concerning networks (and we know how nasty they can be!)
France
Network: M6 (note "Angel" will be broadcasted on a different channel: TF1)
Schedule: Saturday, about 10:30 pm (to be confirmed)
Comments: My God!!! Who is responsible for the translation? The voices respect the characters' style, but the dialogues... how to say that, huh,.... "sucks"? Yeah that would be the right expression. Note that the translation got closer from the original show in season 3. I just hope they will continue to improve...
Mischieves: Well the problem with M6 is that it's a small company so whenever they find a cash cow they get all they can out of it. So Buffy started at 11:30 pm and since it was popular (even with its late schedule), then they re-scheduled it in their "Trilogie du Samedi", a serie of 3 episodes of different shows (usually fantastic TV shows) on Saturdays. After that we had couple other e-cheduling, but at least they always kept the show on Saturdays. What will be the exact schedule for the season 4 this year I don't know yet.
Italy
Here is the sitation in Italy coming from an Italian fan, that unfortunatly lives in a country that doesn't air Buffy. I was also told that a club would be created to root for the broadcasting of Buffy on Italian television. I'll add it here when I learn more on that.
Network: None!!!
Schedule: None!!!
Comments: "Buffy is still inedit in Italy: they announced her last year, then nothing happens, they reannounced her this year for the autumn, but nothing. You could find in some shops American and British magazines about Buffy, but nothing on Tv: I have the episodes from one friend of mine that have Sky. I believe that Buffy could have some problems in Italy, because censorship against young's tv is very strong."
Ireland
Network: TV3 (Sky 1 with the Satellite)
Schedule: TV3: Tuesdays 8 pm; Sky1: Fridays 8 pm ("Angel" at 9 pm)
Comments: I don't know if Irish fans are through with their troubles with TV3, but Sky1 is working well.
Mischieves: (...)" I'm from Ireland and I just want to correct you or your source of info for 1 WORLD 1 SLAYER. Unfortunately, We have NOT seen all of the third series, and the channel is TV3. They are really stupid and they won't answer my angry emails!!! Tv3 have, excuse me HAD only reached Lovers Walk and then they stopped!!They're playing the end of season 2 from Surprise on. Also, they're not even playing all of them!!!! Aaaahhh!!! They are sooo stupid!!!!! Luckily I can watch it on Sky, who are now in Season 4 of BTVS and season 1 of Angel. So... Spread the word!!!!! Let people know!!! And complain!!! You might be able to do a better job than me. Thanks."
Israel
Network: Keshet (for the normal season); Star World (re-runs on cable).
Schedule: Thurday, 18:30. Star Wolrd: Wenesday, 15:00/19:00/23:00.
Comments: So the season 4 has been fully broadcasted. The re-runs on cable are now from the season 3. The information below was sent by Ayelet Hershtik.
Mischieves: Keshet refused to broadcast G2 for excessive violence (because I wasn't air in the US, then it won't be aired in Israel). You'll tell me "but they finally broadcasted G2 in the US?". Yep, but Keshet won't show it anyway. Other than to prove that the WB is even able to piss off Buffy fans in Israel, it's another example of how much time the management of most networks actually spend thinking about whet they do...... The fans had a campaign going on and the 2 final episodes were aired together late at night (better than 2 month later like the WB....). So hopefully it wasn't that bad finally.
Campaign: None anymore. But I leave one banner here (I terminated the link), because you might be interested to know how to write "Help us to save Graduation in Israel" in Hebrew [there were 2 links one for the international fans and one for the local fans in Hebrew].
Philippines
Network: I don't know...
Schedule: I dunno either.
Comments: Season 1 was first aired in 1997. "Buffy" being 1 season behind the US. Apparently it isn't as populars other shows like "Friends" or "Charmed". Good side of that: less commercials during the break (which mean less time to wait the end of all the crap to see the rest of the show).
South Africa
Network: I don't know yet...
Schedule: Same here.
Comments: The South African Buffy fans just saw the end of the third season.
United Arab Emirates
Network: I don't know yet...
Schedule: That neither.
Comments: Season just began to be aired (September 1999). It seems that it's pretty much the same in most of the middle East but I only know of Israel and of the United Arab Emirates precisely.
United States of America
Network: Warner Bros (WB)
Schedule: Tuesday, 8:00 pm E.T.
Comments: The show will now begin its 5th season, and Angel its 2nd season.
Mischieves: No real need to explain here. At the end of the season 3 the WB has been acting tyranically, withdrawing 2 episodes to be aired to a later date. Graduation 2 (the second part of the season final & spin-off of the show), was finnally aired in July. Earshot will be aired in September (we are told by the WB, which then is of little worth). The reason invocate was to respect the victims of the Colorado shootings and their family. This may sound weird but these shootings happened in the US and not in another country where the show is broadcasted. Doesn't it seems strange? (But Ushhhh! That would mean that we would have to really speak about gun control.... Nah let's just cancel Buffy. We won't have to raise the issue and the network could get some positive advertisement this way --note: but they screwed that too, hehehe--).
Campaign: It is still active! In order to prevent the WB from future dictactor-like behavior over Joss some other campaign phases are going on.
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