Localising Global Television

Abstract

With format programming now a business and cultural mainstay of global television, this article focuses on processes whereby adaptation takes place. A key figure in such an interchange is the visiting producer who has production expertise in the adaptation of a particular format. These occasions of remaking or translation involve cross-cultural exchange between the global and the local. Usually, there is mutual recognition of the need to vary a format to suit specific conditions and situations. Adaptation of television formats is a complex dialogue involving at least three levels of negotiation or translation. The analysis highlights the turbulent, messy nature of both local and global culture as they are involved in this interchange.