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TV thoughts

Sometimes I watch TV from others countries, you can learn a lot about a country by watching their channels, and every now or them I fond something interesting. Here I gonna share some of these finds together with comments.

Last updated: 2024/12/19

Korean soap operas
Korean soap opera
  • Country: 🇰🇷 South Korea
  • Channel: MBC

Nowadays, South Korea is famous for its dramas, but I never see anyone talking about their soap operas, which they apparently call “Daily Dramas”. Could it be because they look rather cheap and low quality compared to K-Dramas? Or because people don't have the patience to watch 100 episodes of a drama? Anyway, this one is called “The Brave Yong Su Jeong”.

Weather forecast for North Korea on South Korea TV
Weather forecast for North Korea on South Korea TV
  • Country: 🇰🇷 South Korea
  • Channel: KBS 1TV

For some reason, KBS shows the weather forecast of North Korea together with South Korea, this is the only channel I see this. It's funny that Arirang TV, which is also a state TV station like KBS, only shows the weather forecast for the South.

Children's anime warning
Children's anime warning

Some Japanese channels broadcast anime for children in the evening at weekends. These anime have a warning that says something like “Keep the room lit and watch it from a distance”.

Local television content rating in the Philippines
Local television content rating in the Philippines

I hardly watch local TV of the Philippines, but I've noticed that the program's content rating is always appearing on the screen, which is quite strange to me, as normally the content rating only appears for a short time on the screen and then disappears (And what's with that hideous golden logo of this TV channel?).

NHK train show
NHK train show

There's a program broadcast on NHK in the early hours of the morning that shows a train going from station to station. Do some people like watching these kinds of programs? Or is it because NHK doesn't have anything to put on at that time?


Click here to watch a clip of this.

Sign language programming in the UK
Sign language programming in the UK
  • Country: 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
  • Channel: BBC News

In the late evening and early morning, all the programming is in sign language. From what I've heard, this is apparently due to a law in the UK that requires a certain percentage of the channels' programming to have sign language.

Election results on Brazilian TV
Election results on Brazilian TV

The results of elections in Brazil usually appear in a footer that appears in the middle of the program. When it appears, it plays the sound that the electronic ballot box makes (also squishes the program image, which bothers me a little).


Click here to watch a clip of this.

Japanese breaking news text
Japanese breaking news text

In Japan, they have this text at the top center of the screen that can appear in the middle of a program or even in commercials to inform you about breaking news, a weak earthquake or a weather alert. I'd like to know the name of this text, as it's very difficult to find information about it on the Internet.


Click here to watch a clip of this.

TV channel id for commercial breaks in movies
TV channel id for commercial breaks in movies

More specifically, TV Globo has an id for when a movie is going to a commercial break. It was originally created to make a smooth transition between the movie and the commercial break in the 1970s, and is popularly called “plim plim” in Brazil.


Click here to watch a clip of this.

Animated colorbars
Animated colorbars

For some reason, some TV channels in Japan have this animated colorbars, to be honest I find it quite unique.


Click here to watch a clip of this.

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