Soon after the Berlin Wall came down 18 years ago, Bill Roedy had an epiphany in a hotel room in Finland. As he watched a 20-year-old American rerun on cable television, he asked himself: "How much longer can we go on pushing The Beverly Hillbillies on the Finns?"

Juntit Beverly Hillsissä may be long forgotten but the one-size-fits-all approach that characterised many media groups' early exports has not been shaken off by all.