To me, sitting here in damp old England, it seems like we get the short end of the stick. I'm not ignorant - I know there are hundreds of other countries in the world that don't even get the level of treatment we get, but for a country that has such a bond with the USA, I'd expect us to be treated with some respect.
For example, let's pick an American TV show at random. Psych. As far as I am aware, it used to be on 5*, but I can't find any trace of it anymore. Let's say today is February 15th 2008, and the season 2 finale of Psych just aired. When will the whole season be on DVD in America? July 11th of the same year. How about us in the UK? June 7th. 2010. Ok, let's move to the present. A few days ago, season 8 episode 3 of Psych aired in the US. When will us 'lucky' folk in the UK get to watch it? Probably next year at the earliest, as only the first episode of season 7 is available on the UK iTunes store at the moment, which of course, has been on DVD in America since October 8th 2013, but still isn't available here yet.
My, how I whine about such a trivial thing. Once that sarcasm has washed over you, let me remind you how self-entitled Americans seem to feel when it comes to watching our television, namely Sherlock and Downton Abbey. I'm sure you've seen, or at least heard, of all the news articles about Americans whining about how Downton Abbey got spoiled for them because people in the UK tweeted about it when it happened. Excuse us for tweeting about our own shows in our own country - I suppose we don't deserve to because Twitter is an American service? How about Sherlock then? I suppose waiting less than two weeks to get the same episodes we do is just simply far too long?
I like the USA - as the favicon for this blog probably suggests. But one thing that really grates on me is the self-entitled view they have about the comparatively little media the UK produces, when their media corporations treat us a hundred times worse than ours do them.
But it doesn't just stop at media. No, it extends to other goods too. Ignoring the absurd and all-too popular currency 'conversion' where US companies simply change the $ sign to a £. For example, the Roku, which is $99 on their site, and £99 on Amazon UK. For a more concrete example, the Apple TV costs $99, or £99. In case any Americans are wondering how much a £ is, much like the obnoxious jokes about comparing our units of measurement to bananas, $99 is £59.98. meaning that we pay 50% more simply for living in the wrong country.
Extending along the hardware strand, is the absurd delay in technology swimming across the Atlantic. Yesterday, I said that unless HTC announces something really special, I'm seriously tempted by the Moto X. Today, I looked online and discovered that the Moto X wasn't actually available in the UK until the 1st February. To add insult to injury, how many design combinations can you have in the US with MotoMaker? Over 500. What design options do we get? 1.5. For a phone half a year old that never had very high specifications to begin with, it's looking less and less appealing to me.
What really bugs me is, what do they get out of it by screwing us over? It's not like we could have signed up to an AT&T contract over here, so what do they really stand to lose? I really hoped that the sorts of days such as the original iPhone being only available in the US to begin with were behind us given that it's now seven years further on and the world is a more connected place since. It's pathetic, embarrassing, and they;re missing out on sales. Clearly I must be wrong though, as they're the business experts.
(excuse me for the incoherence - I wanted more to just air my views on this unfortunately consistently relevant matter)