Is American television taking over the world?

No, quite simply:

European broadcasters are meeting their legal targets for showing European programs, according to European Commission figures… The research from the commission, the European Union’s executive authority, indicates that, on average, two-thirds of the programs shown on European television are made in Europe, which is safely above the 50% minimum level set by the European Union’s Television Without Frontiers directive [TC: how’s that for an oxymoron, a protectionist directive that speaks of doing away with frontiers?]. The figures for 2001 and 2002 cover the existing 15 European Union countries at that time — the EU expanded to 25 countries in May. The proportion of European programming broadcast was 66.9% in 2001 and 66.1% in 2002.

Here is the link.

People wish to share their movie stars with global audiences more than they feel the need to share their TV stars in the same way. Hollywood movies sometimes take up to eighty percent of those same European markets. In part the large movie screen offers more room for good special effects, an area where Hollywood has a near monopoly. But the biggest single factor is demographics. Moviegoing, a social event, is the province of the young. The young are the most peer-conscious group around, and that is why the cinema occasions such charges of cultural imperialism, while TV screens are filled with local content.

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