Wombat

I love the British sitcom "Coupling". Don't be put off by the terrible attempt NBC made to make an Americanized version - the original British version, which is still in production, is stunningly good.

Right now the new series 4 of Coupling is being broadcast in the UK on BBC3, and fans in the US are impatiently waiting for the series to be re-broadcast on the US cable channel BBC America. The delay varies: for this series the delay will be about a month, but for previous series the wait stretched to several months.

Except lots of people aren't waiting any more. It turns out that the new episodes get digitized by UK Coupling fans and put on the net the same day. Not only is internet delivery faster than BBC America, the picture quality is much better; BBC America badly crop and zoom the picture, whereas the videos on the net are crystal-clear widescreen.

So the lesson for BBC America is "wake up". You now have competition.