4. Quality Over Quantity
HBOIf there's one difference between American and British television that's always been immediately noticeable, it's that a British 'series' will have a typical run of six episodes per year, whilst an American 'season' will have a run of around twenty four episodes. This is largely due to the fact that British shows are the brainchild of one writer, whilst American shows are written by a panel of writers. As a result of this, British programmes are frequently cited as being of a higher quality than their American counterparts, which struggle to maintain a high standard throughout their 16-18 hour run times and often contain large amounts of filler material. More and more American shows (mostly those on cable networks) are adopting the British model, however, airing in seasons of anywhere between six and thirteen episodes per year. This allows them to be much more concise - whilst many Game of Thrones fans would undoubtedly be over the moon if they were promised twenty four episodes next season, for instance, the production would suffer greatly from the commitment of producing these in time. Though it may be catching on with cable networks, the American 'big four' will continue to try and ensure that their hits are on the air for as much of the year as possible for reasons of consistency and profit, though even they have embraced the 'quality over quantity' approach on their (often superior) sister networks, notably FX (Fox), which has been the home of contemporary greats such as Justified, The Shield and Sons Of Anarchy.