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This study assesses the impact of the growth of satellite television in the UK on terrestrial channels. The paper outlines the debate concerning satellite television's potential role in globalisation and pan-European marketing processes, provides background information on the development of satellite television in the UK, and gives an insight into the structure of the main UK satellite service, British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB). An exploratory study into the advertising content of terrestrial commercial (TTV) and satellite television (BSkyB) is discussed and findings are presented. Differences and similarities in advertising content between terrestrial and satellite, in particular the extent of global, national and regional advertising on both channels, are indicated.

The standardization of advertising for international markets has been much discussed in the literature, although there is little empirical evidence on how far standardized advertisements are used in practice. What research has been undertaken has investigated the incidence of standardized international advertising between the USA and Europe. This article pursues the topic within the European framework and develops a method for comparing advertising used in more than one country. The model is then tested to compare advertisements in the same medium for the same brands in two culturally diverse European countries, France and the UK. The findings show that complete standardization of copy and layout is possible in only very few cases and that in most instances modifications occur.