A common point is often made about the poor quality of Australian TV.

I'd like to know what that actually entails?? We'll have Foxtel (all the trimmings incl sport - boy that's a concession from me!!) (by the way if anyone has this I'd be entrigued as to how much it's gonna set us back?)

My hope is that this means it's full of US imports? The cop dramas (CSI: NY, Criminal Minds, Mentalist etc), comedies (South Park, 30 Rock, Modern Family), and weird real-life programmes (hubby loves Pawn Stars, American Pickers and that one about storage units(!))

Thanks TV viewers!

We had full foxtel package on 2xtvs. Think was $180/month (pay little more if you want HD channels I think). Cancelled it 2 months ago as we just weren't watching anything - Rugby WC was the last thing in October!
I download everything, all the UK stuff and few US things - Modern Family etc.
Trouble here is there are SO many ad breaks and the ads are SO SO bad it was driving us MAD!
Some of the free channels have new ish UK shows - Titanic starting soon and Graham Norton is quite recent.

I think it is the 5 basic Australian channels that are often criticised. We have a foxtel package, I am not sure what it costs, maybe about $80 a month. It is OK, has a lot of channels and we just watch a few of them as is normally the case with these packages. I am not sure if I have seen CSI, but there are plenty of US exports. There is a UKTV channel too, with eastenders, coronation street and emmerdale if you like these, a couple of months behind. We have just finished watching professional Masterchef 2011. TV is different, but you get used to what is on offer, even the higher number of ad breaks.

I have watched all of those are on 'normal' TV. No need for Foxtel if that's what you are in to

Your list of programmes is pretty much why people think Oz TV is bad - so many cr*ppy US imports on heavy rotation. If that's the type of thing you like I think you'll find that you are well catered for on the Freeview channels, particularly 7,9 & 10.

For instance, here's Monday evening TV on the main channel of "Seven":
7:30 Australia's Got Talent
9:00 Revenge
10:00 How I met your Mother
10:30 Happy Endings
11:00 30 Rock

Of your list, on Freeview:
CSI: NY - check
Criminal Minds - check
Mentalist - check
South Park - not sure
30 Rock - check
Modern Family - check
Pawn Stars - check
American Pickers - check

Sounds like hell indeed, a good reminder why I don't own a TV these days

And one episode of Revenge is 40 mins so a third of that is ads...

We record everything on IQ so that we can skip the ads.

It would be unwatchable otherwise.

If the OP avoids 7, 9 and 10 they will find all sorts of stuff on ABC1/2 and SBS1/2 which is superb - and well worth watching.

Not many people underline this fact.

Edit - it seems the OP likes tabloid programming. Well deal with those adverts and you won't have an issue.

I gave up with everything other than I Player and dvds. I do, remember watching ABC channels and was pleasantly surprised to find something half watchable only I remember things were repeated again and again. Is that not the case?

I honestly don't see the difference between Aus TV and UK TV. There's an awful lot of crap interspersed with a lesser amount of quality.

So true. ABC IView is terrific. I would also add ABC Radio 774 Jon Faine weekday mornings. Raf Epstein at drive time and Walleed Ali highly recommended on Radio National.

If you can't stretch to foxtel I would recommend a PVR (we have beyonwiz...as always there are others). Record free view programs, watch them at your leisure and skip ads. Amazon and Book Depository regularly deliver dvds and books here. Movie tickets are outrageously expensive especiAlly for families. We buy 10 Packs of tickets, enjoy small cinema houses like pinewood cinemas in Waverley, and have rabid teenagers on unlimited bandwidth.

I take the view that 10 minutes watching/ listening to rubbish is 10 minutes of my life I will never get back.

I'd say there was probably twice the volume of quality TV in the UK as there is in Oz. In addition the quality Oz TV tends to be UK TV with more ads and weeks to months late. Cut out the middle man and get it from the source.

I was pretty disappointed with UK TV when I was there last week. There is now even more reality tv than the year before. It's like some hideous unstoppable juggernaut. 'Come dine with me' , 'four in a bed' , 'sun, sea and A&E' (I prefer the idea of 'Sun, Sea and STD' ) - just dreadful stuff but cheap I guess.

I think the difference for me is the documentary stuff and the quality of the news programmes in the UK. There is also does make some great stuff if you shift through the reality junk to find it - just watching 'Made in Britain 1986' by Channel 4 - it's very good. Australian tv just seems like a vehicle for repetitive cheaply made adverts - more a la US model.

I also saw some awful programming in the Uk back in 2008.
But anything decent eventually makes it way to Australia on SBS or ABC - it really does. Whenever my wife has the box on, we seem to see Stephen Fry and/or his mates tee hee. 7, 9 and 10 is indeed awful and I believe regional Australian TV is even worse.

Indeed.