The International Extent and Elasticity of Lifestyle Television

Lifestyle is a TV genre that exists predominantly on the screens of Northern Europe and Anglophone countries such as the UK, the USA and Australia. Hence, lifestyle formats are not traded globally but rather trans-nationally within a distinct geo-linguistic region. Nonetheless, lifestyle programming is still produced very differently within this region according to the media systemic conditions of the specific national TV markets and the specific broadcasters and channels in question. As such, the lifestyle genre is indeed tremendously flexible and elastic and can be used in a diverse number of ways, catering for local broadcasters’ image and target groups, local markets’ competitive conditions, media regulations, and history. This article investigates the international extent of the genre and looks into possible explanations for its Anglophone and Northern European bias. Subsequently, the great elasticity of the genre is examined by way of a thorough analysis of the Australian and Danish versions of the program format The Block, which will demonstrate precisely how the genre can be adapted radically differently to suit two diverse broadcasters and their diverse conditions.