[mnlbay]

To pick up on some chat from earlier in the thread: I've just spent a fortnight in the USA, and yes, BBC America is a real oddball, isn't it? It's half owned by BBC Studios and the other half by AMC (BBC Studios' stake is a fraction bigger in reality) but it barely shows any BBC content. On the handful of occasions I tuned in, it was either showing movies or US TV dramas. To be fair, I did see them running trailers for the upcoming (for them) Happy Valley Series 3, though. But it feels like the channel is something of a misnomer.

I think the situation in Canada is even more of an odd construct. It was rebranded as BBC First in 2021 and shows mainly BBC produced programmes, but is wholly owned by Blue Ant Media who licence the brand from the BBC.

Perhaps there are more Anglophiles in Canada with an appetite for Brit-stuff than in the USA.

I think Canada is more related to media ownership regulation - all of the “foreign channels” in Canada appear to be owned by domestic companies with the brands licensed. Another example is ABC Spark that is owned by Corus but use the ABC brand under licence.