List of Top Gear broadcasters and video releases

This is a list of "Top Gear" broadcasters and video releases.

Broadcasters

Australia

As well as the condensed BBC World edition being available on pay television, Australian free-to-air broadcaster SBS commenced the airing of the abridged BBC Two edition (without references to the Top Gear survey and the phone-in competitions) on December 12, 2005, starting with the 2004 series. [ [http://www.sbs.com.au/whatson/index.php3?id=1139 Top Gear] ." SBS Television. Accessed 28 December 2005] SBS started broadcasting the 2005 series in July 2006. The series returned January 2007, alternating with "MythBusters" in the 7.30pm timeslot on Mondays. In January 2008, Top Gear returned with the "Polar Special".

From early 2007, SBS hinted that a future episode of Top Gear will be filmed in Australia. A competition asked viewers "Which car should Top Gear review in Australia and in which iconic location?" [cite web| url=http://topgear.sbs.com.au/Competitionentries.aspx?id=3| title=SBS - Top Gear - Competition Entries|accessdate=2007-02-20]

In November 2007 SBS announced that they will be creating a completely Australian version of Top Gear.The series will be produced by Freehand Productions, BBC Worldwide's Australasian partner and will air sometime in 2008. It will be presented by Charlie Cox, Warren Brown and Steve Pizzati [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/bbcworldwide/worldwidestories/pressreleases/2008/05_may/top_gear_australia.shtml BBC - Press Office - Australian Top Gear presenters revealed ] ] . Casting was the subject of a two-month competition where the network regularly ran a spot to promote the show asking viewers to send in audition tapes. Some of these auditions have found their way on to YouTube.

Australia is the first country in the world to secure the rights to make a local version of Top Gear.

Quote "The Australian version will feature local hosts, and won't simply replicate the UK series. SBS plans to make a program that is uniquely and quintessentially Australian," Matt Campbell said."

As of Saturday 23rd February 2008, SBS will be broadcasting 'Vintage Top Gear' at the Saturday 7:30pm timeslot, which is never-before seen in Australia, episodes from Season 1 with the Black Stig and Jason Dawe.

Belgium

On June 2, 2008 Canvas aired a 50-minute version the Africa special. They continue to air season 10 after this initial episode.

Bulgaria

On 24 February 2008 bTV aired a 30- minute version of the Winter Olympic Special, being the first channel to officially show the programme in the country. The timeslot allocated is 16:30 EET on Sunday. It was announced that for Grand Prix weekends the show will be moved to 14:30 EET.

Canada

A 30 minute version was also aired in Canada on "BBC Canada" and "Discovery Channel Canada". In late 2005, "BBC Canada" began airing a one hour version of the show. Though longer, this version was still somewhat modified in order to fit ten minutes of commercials into the timeslot.

Denmark

In Denmark, "Top Gear" is broadcast in the American Discovery Channel format, on Viasat TV3+.

Estonia

"Top Gear" is broadcast in Estonia on TV3 and TV6. (Started from season 1)

Finland

"Top Gear" is broadcast in Finland on MTV3 channel once a week (starting from season 8) slightly edited (removed news etc.) and on chargeable MTV3 MAX twice a week in original length. Shows are subtitled in Finnish.

Greece

Recent episodes of "Top Gear" are available on Skai TV (ΣΚΑΪ) once a week. Originally the show was dubbed in Greek, but at some later point they switched it to the original audio, subtitled in Greek. The broadcasting is in 16:9 format.

Hong Kong

"Top Gear" is broadcast in Hong Kong via ATV World and BBC Knowledge.

Iceland

In Iceland, "Top Gear" is broadcast on SkjárEinn.

Ireland

In 2008 RTE began to broadcast Top Gear in the Republic of Ireland. Previous to this Irish viewers could only see Top Gear on British broadcasters such as the BBC and Dave (formerly UKTV G2). However, the show is edited to 45 minutes, with the news being commonly cut. RTÉ also are 3 seasons behind the BBC.

Israel

"EGO" channel (available both on HOT and Yes) broadcasts "Top Gear" starting from the fifth season. EGO airs its own-edited 45 minutes long version of the show. "Top Gear" episodes shown in Israel are on average 6 months behind those aired in the UK. Lately, EGO started to air some earlier episodes, dubbed "Top Gear Classic".

Italy

Top Gear in Italy is broadcasted by Discovery Channel.

Malaysia

"Top Gear" is aired on NTV7.

Latvia

"Top Gear" is broadcast in Latvia on TV6.

Lithuania

"Top Gear" is broadcast in Lithuania on Tango TV.

Netherlands

"Top Gear" is broadcast in the Netherlands on Veronica. In older episodes, the news is edited out. As Veronica is a few months behind on the BBC, many Dutch viewers prefer to watch the show on BBC Two, which is generally available in the Netherlands via cable. Other viewers choose to watch Canvas (Belgium), because it is also subtitled in Dutch, but has no commercial breaks.

New Zealand

Since 2003 Prime TV has been showing hour-long episodes every Sunday evening. It is one of Prime's most popular shows and has a large following among both New Zealand men and women, in spite of it having a "blokish" feel about it. "Top Gear" episodes shown in New Zealand are on average 6 months behind the UK.

North America

In the summer of 2005, "Top Gear" was shown in North America on the Discovery Channel. The American format was different from the British format, with the news and talk show segments removed entirely. Furthermore, the American versions mixed segments from different episodes from the British version. The studio segments were specially recorded for the North American viewers, even though the same set and hosts were used as the British version. These changes were made not only to target the North American audience, but to accommodate for a shorter run time (approximately 43 minutes for the American version versus 60 minutes for the British version).

Currently the North American version is no longer being produced for the Discovery Channel. However, according to fan website FinalGear.com, [ [http://www.finalgear.com/news/2005/12/22/top-gear-usa/#more-226 Top Gear USA] ." FinalGear.com 22 December 2005. Accessed 18 February 2005] and citing the latest issue of "Top Gear" magazine, the American version pilot reportedly has made a few changes from the original British show. As noted on the site:::"That’s why earlier this year a brand new TG USA production team assembled deep in the Mojave desert to create a pilot show for their version of Britain’s favourite almost-BAFTA-winning car programme. And, like their idea of what constitutes a decent cup of coffee, the American take on Top Gear wasn’t entirely the same as ours. Instead of a shabby hangar and a track built around airfield taxiways, they got a pit garage and a proper circuit. Instead of filling the studio with 200 grunting Subaru drivers, they did without an audience. And instead of The Tall One, The Short One and The Other One, they hired three rather different American presenters. Bruno, a professional drag racer with casual tales of crashing at 230 mph. John, the super keen jock, blessed with quaint ’sir and ma’am’ good manners that only Americans can do. And, Johnny, a former reality show winner with a nice line in weird humor."

But some aspects of the show may remain:::"Fortunately some reference points remained, including Star In A Reasonably Priced Car. But, to set the power laps, there could be no substitute - the Stig was flown to the US and stunned everyone with his blistering pace as he hammered the CLS55, Charger, and Mustang round the circuit."

As of December 2005, Discovery Channel has not announced it plans to pick up the Americanized version of "Top Gear". Recent postings on the Discovery Channel message boards from a person identified as Kristen, Program Development Discovery Channel expressed the belief that Top Gear might come back to Discovery:

::"I passed your comments on internally. We'll weigh them as we make a final decision. Thanks for taking the time to post!" [ [http://community.discovery.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/8081928318/m/8121925418/p/2 TOP GEAR] Discovery Channel Message Boards, Accessed March 17, 2006.]

::"And Top Gear fans, we're definitely hearing ya!" [ [http://community.discovery.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/8671928318/m/3581928318/p/2 Tell us what you would like to see Discovery do] Discovery Channel Message Boards, Accessed March 17, 2006.]

For Canadian viewers, BBC Canada has announced that they will soon start broadcasting the original, uncut episodes of the show originally shown on BBC Two in the UK.Fact|date=February 2007 Also, the Science Channel has started broadcasting the American episodes of Top Gear. In addition, the BBC recently confirmed that the American Top Gear would be produced, promising that the original presenters of the British show would be hosting.

On August 10, 2007, BBC America announced that they would air episodes of Top Gear. Starting with autumn of 2007 unabridged British versions of Top Gear (apparently, from Season 8) are shown by BBC America.

Norway

"Top Gear" is broadcast in the original format on NRK2 and NRK3, with Norwegian subtitles.

Poland

"Top Gear" is broadcast in Poland on TVN Turbo. All the episodes are shown in their cut UKTV format. Episodes air about 2-3 weeks after they first air on BBC Two.Recently, the program has disappeared from TVN Turbo and no mention has been made when it would return.

Romania

The show is presented in Romania on Antena 3. It airs the 30 minutes show, but it is extended to almost an hour by inserting lots of commercials in it. The show runs with a delay of 1 season, and when they run out of episodes, they start over, or run randomly selected episodes.

Russia

Series had been presented at NTV channel weekly from 2003 till 2007. Each episode was 30 minutes long including 5-minute commercial breaks, so actually original episodes already being split to halves were furthermore cut to fit given time. Thus most of them missed Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car segment. Show was stopped due to low ratings and changed for Quattroruote starting 2008.

Serbia

Top Gear is broadcast on the cable TV channel Ultra every weekend at 8:45 PM. Repeats are aired on the same TV channel around noon, Saturdays and Sundays.

South Africa

Top Gear is broadcast on BBC Prime in South Africa through the DSTV platform and recently on the new channel, BBC Knowledge

Sweden

In Sweden, "Top Gear" is broadcast on Kanal 9.

The Middle East

"Top Gear" is broadcast in the Middle East and Northern Africa on MBC Action.

United Kingdom

"Top Gear" is first broadcast on BBC Two Sunday nights and repeated on the following Wednesday evening and again the following Saturday on BBC Three. Further repeats (of a cut version to make time for adverts) are shown on UKTV People and since extra viewing hours it is also broadcast on Dave. None of the segments in the show have been edited out, but smaller moments, such as applause, some news items and occasionally A star in a reasonably-priced car, have been trimmed to make room for advertising.

"Top Gear" is shown on BBC World, albeit in a cut form - with episodes being approx 30 to 35 minutes in length. The Star in the Reasonably Priced Car and the news segments are cut from the BBC World version.

United States

The show has been broadcast on the cable channel BBC America since 2007. On January 21, 2008, Zap2It reported that NBC television was developing an Americanized version of "Top Gear".

DVD and VHS releases

* "Top Gear - Back in the Fast Lane - The Best of Series One and Two" - October 27, 2003
* "Top Gear - Revved Up" - June 6, 2005
* "Top Gear - Winter Olympics" - June 5, 2006
* "Top Gear - The Challenges" - June 4, 2007
* "Top Gear - Richard Hammonds Interactive Challenge" - November 12, 2007
* "Top Gear - The Great Adventures (Polar Special & US Special)" - March 3, 2008
* "Top Gear - The Challenges Vol. 2" - June 2, 2008

References