Netflix, Hulu look to UK for content

By Jake Coyle

AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK

You may have seen the original BBC version of “The Office,” but have you seen the sketch show “A Bit of Fry & Laurie” with Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry?

What about Steve Coogan’s talk-show parody, “Knowing Me, Knowing You With Alan Partridge”? Or how about the 2003 political thriller “State of Play”?

Catching these British shows in the U.S. used to mean hunting down sometimes hard to find DVDs. But in digital realms, divisions between American and British TV worlds are fast dissolving.

Netflix and Hulu have made international television more accessible than ever. Now, one’s favorite “new” show is often phrased as a “discovery.” And often, viewers’ interests lead beyond borders.

Broadcast television, of course, offers many cable stations from abroad. But in the vast digital repositories of Hulu and Netflix, shows aren’t segregated by country of origin. Instead, programs are discovered and rediscovered through word of mouth.

American networks have long looked across the Atlantic for programming to copy — for example, franchised hits such as “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” and attempted remakes such as “Coupling.” Many shows also end up on BBC America or PBS, such as the recent, acclaimed upstairs-downstairs drama “Downtown Abbey.”

But often, such hits as “Downtown Abbey” send viewers back to Netflix, where they scour for more top-notch British costume drama.

Hulu, which is owned by the parent companies of ABC, NBC and Fox, is attempting to make a splash this summer by streaming three British series not before seen in the U.S.

“Misfits,” a Channel 4 comedy about community service-sentenced teenagers turned into superheroes by an electrical storm, premiered on Hulu last month. The Vuguru-produced Web series “The Booth at the End,” a thriller about a man who grants wishes for a price, will premiere July 11. “Whites,” a BBC comedy about a country house hotel chef, debuts July 20.