Distress Signals (1991)

• 79%
• 1991
• Documentary
• John Walker

This documentary discusses the growing problem of American dominance in world wide television. To be precise, developing nations, Canada and Europe finds themselves facing difficult choices as they must find ways of filling TV airtime in their broadcast systems. Unfortunately, given the expense of making original television content themselves, they find themselves turning to cheap American programming to make up the difference. However, the price for this bargain may be high as customer nations face the threat of being overwhelmed by American product and drowning out their own nation's culture and identity on TV. This film discusses the problem and shows various regions' response to it.