Canned TV Going Global

The international distribution and circulation of audio-visual content is one of the most relevant in recent debates in media and television studies. This area has been the subject of much previous scholarship, particularly in terms of the relevance of TV formats, their centrality for the medium and its economy, and different practices of adaptation and “localization”. However, much less attention has been devoted to so-called “ready-made content” (or “finished content”) and its circulation among different countries and markets. “Canned” programming is typically the output of a specific national TV and media system, but it spills across borders when licensed into different territories, sometimes even globally. This special issue of VIEW focuses on the international circulation and distribution of ready-made content, in the form of scripted products.