Jindabyne - Television

I watched the Super Bowl today. It was strange to watch it at 10:30 in the morning on a Monday, but such is the time zone difference. I haven’t been following the NFL season at all and it receives scant coverage over here where rugby, cricket, soccer, tennis and Australian Rules football (whatever that is) dominate. I would have forgotten about it completely if not for a brief mention on a sports news broadcast about the first Australian to play in the Super Bowl (Arizona’s punter). Merrilyn and David gave us their cable box to use while they are at their beach house so we have many channels to choose from and I was able to find one showing the game, not that I particularly cared whether Arizona or Pittsburgh prevailed.

Much of our time here has been spent in places with only the five “free-to-air” channels available - three commercial and two public – which usually suffices. I understand there will eventually be 15 free channels as the transition to digital progresses. Subscription television via cable and satellite is widely available just as in the USA, with about the same number and types of channels, but I think it costs a bit less here. I’m not sure how many Australians opt for cable or satellite and how many just get by with the free channels.

Apparently Australia does produce some of its own programs, but it seems like the majority are familiar American shows or British shows. So yes, we get American Idol. (Just don’t tell Deborah that there is also an Australian Idol or we’ll have to watch that too.) The start times are sometimes odd and seemingly haphazard though: a sitcom may start at 7:40pm or a movie at 8:35pm. They also have movie-like ratings for non-movie programs indicating whether they are for mature audiences or general audiences or whatever – probably a good idea. I believe they also have restrictions on what time of day certain programs (or even advertising) can be shown. So I guess if you’re looking for the racy stuff you’ll have to stay up late.

The grass around the lake is getting brown. We need rain...