French Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal
© AFP/File Stephane de SakutinPARIS (AFP) - "TV used to be a mirror, but it's become a one-way mirror with the viewer at the centre," said Pascale Josephe, of IMCA (International Media Consultant Associes), one of three market research firms behind a study of 2006-2007 international TV trends released ahead of next week's MIPTV/MILIA trade show.
According to the study by IMCA, Mediametrie and NOTA (New On The Air), simplicity and efficiency are the key concepts driving TV content.
The content itself aims to be readily understood by all, transmit basic values, provide elementary knowledge and give ordinary life a bit of spunk.
The most important player in most of the shows popular in nine key countries surveyed is the viewer, who is the "the author, the actor and the citizen," the study says.
Co-host of "12 Corazones" Edward 'O
© AFP/GettyImages/File John M. HellerBritain's "Homemade" on Channel 4 for example is entirely made up of amateur videos selected on Internet, while ITV1's "I was there - the people's review" features news filmed by viewers on cameras or cellphones.
In France, bracing for a key presidential election this month and next, a show enabling 100 viewers on the set to quiz the candidates -- "I have a question to ask" -- has been so successful that Spain's state channel TVE1 has adapted it too.
"These programmes are a way of living in the moment," Josephe said.
Game shows meanwhile are being dumbed down, with intuition more important than knowledge. In NBC's "Identity" candidates have to guess the characteristics of 12 unknown people, while Fox's "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" is a quiz based on primary school manuals.
Candidates can even ask school children on the set for help or cheat by copying.
Indian actress Shilpa Shetty waves after being voted the winner of Celebrity Big Brother
© AFP/File Leon NealTraditional teaching methods too are back in the limelight. "Never did me any harm" on Britain's Channel 4 takes four families back in time so their children can taste life in the pre-hitech era. Germany's "Die Brauteschule" is set in a girls' boarding school in 1958.
"The trend is to go back to the values of the past," Josephe added.
Food shows -- such as Spain's "Soy lo que como" or BBC2's "Grow your own veg" -- are back-to-basics educational, as are a host of cultural programmes such as France 3's "L'Heure de l'Opera".
Sex, in increasingly hot mode, continues to top the charts, with "Dirt" in the United States or Britain's "Bonkers", about the daily life of a family whose members are all sexually obsessed.
Reality shows are taking a humane twist, promoting ideals such as tolerance, generosity, sharing and multiculturalism, though the plots are far from heavenly.
Channel 4's "The Secret Millionaire" sees a millionaire in search of a poor district where he can go slumming for a week while in The Netherlands' "Liefde op het tweede gezicht" a group of eight handicapped people are in search of the ideal partner.
The survey looked at 414 new programmes launched in Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands and the United States.
©AFP