Since the late 1990s, when broadcasters began adapting such television shows as Big Brother, Survivor and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? for markets around the world, the global television industry has been struggling to get to grips with the prevalence of programme franchising across international borders. In TV Format Mogul, Albert Moran traces the history of this phenomenon through the lens of Australian producer Reg Grundy’s transnational career. Beginning in the late 1950s, Grundy bro...

Australians have become increasingly visible outside of the country as speakers and actors in radio and television, their media moguls have frequently bought up foreign companies, and people around the world have been able to enjoy such Australian productions as The Flying Doctors, Neighbours, and Kath and Kim. The origins, early development, and later adaptations of radio and television show how Australia has gone from being a minor and rather parochial player t...

This book explores the trade in television program formats, which is a crucially important ingredient in the globalisation of culture, in Asia. It examines how much traffic there is in program formats, the principal direction of flow of such traffic, and the economic and cultural significance of this trade for the territories involved, and for the region as a whole. It shows how new technology, deregulation, privatisation and economic recession have greatly intensified competition between ...

Whether we stream them on our laptops, enjoy them in theatres or slide them into DVD players to watch on our TVs, movies are part of what it means to be socially connected in the twenty-first century. Despite its significant role in our lives, the act of watching films remains an area of social activity that is little studied and thus, little understood.In Watching Films, an international cast of contributors correct this problem with a comprehensive investigation of movie...

Ever since Norman Lear remade the BBC series Till Death Us Do Part into All in the Family, American remakes of British television shows have become part of the American cultural fabric. Indeed, some of the programs currently said to exemplify American tastes and attitudes, from reality programs like American Idol and What Not to Wear to the mock-documentary approach of The Office, are adaptations of successful British shows. Carlen Lavigne and H...

The relationship of philosophy with Kafka’s oeuvre is complex. It has been argued that Kafka’s novels and stories defy philosophic extrapolation; conversely, it has also been suggested that precisely the tendency of Kafka’s writings to elude discursive solution is itself a philosophical tendency, one that is somehow contributing to a wiser relationship of human beings with language. These matters are the focus of the proposed volume on Philosophy and Kafka.The proposed collection b...

Whether it was Jane Campion's The Piano, Mel Gibson in Mad Max, Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee, or The Lord of the Rings saga, we have all experienced the cinema of Australia and New Zealand. This book is an introduction and guide to the film of Australia and New Zealand.With entries on many exceptional producers, directors, writers and actors, as well as the films indicated above and many others, this reference also presents the early pioneers, ...

Recent years have seen an astonishing growth in the adaptation of program formats in television systems across the world. Under the new market conditions of the multi-channel cluster brought about by new technologies and increased privatization of service, the adaptation of successful and popular TV formats from one place to another is occurring on an increasingly regular basis. Hence, the remaking of different national versions of Big Brother and Pop Idol are only part o...

Although TV distribution has undergone a massive increase in volume and value over the past fifty years, there is a systematic lack of both curiosity and knowledge on the part of both industry and scholars about this area. This book assists in the filling of this gap by studying what, in fact, occurs in global trade in TV program formats within international markets such as Cannes, Las Vegas and Singapore. The study investigates key components of this trade, thereby elucidating the crucial...

Beginning around 2003, the growth of interest in the genre of reality shows has dominated the field of television studies. However, concentrating on this genre has tended to sideline the even more significant emergence of the program format as a central mode of business and culture in the new television landscape. TV Formats Worldwide redresses this balance and heralds the emergence of an important, exciting, and challenging area of television studies. Topics explored include real...

Filmmakers have honed their skills and many have achieved critical and popular success at home and abroad, as have actors and other crew. American filmmakers and companies have found it cheaper to make films in Australia because wages and salaries are lower, tax rebates have been attractive and the expertise in most areas of filmmaking is comparable to that of anywhere in the world. At the same time, Australian audiences still enjoy watching Australian films, making some of them profitable...

Locating Migrating Media details the extent to which media productions, both televisual and cinematic, have sought out new and cheaper shot locations, creative staff, and financing around the world. The book contributes to debates about media globalization, focusing on the local impact of new sites of media production. The book's chapters also question the role that film and television industries and local and regional governments play in broader economic develop and tax incentive...