UC Santa Barbara

This article focuses on the sale and purchase of TV programs and formats at international trade fairs and its implications for our understanding of global television audiences, fans, and texts. Through analytic engagement with the core concept of flow, the authors explore three related issues: (a) how viewers and fans are positioned in distribution practices, (b) the ease through which various televisual elements travel through the distribution process, and (c) the limitations of a conceptual reliance on "traveling" discourses to our understanding of global TV trade.