Essay from the year 2009 in the subject Communications - Movies and Television, grade: 4,0 => 2,0 (vgl. Anm.), University of Helsinki (Communications), course: Introduction to Media and Global Communication, language: English, abstract: This essay addresses the topic of format adaption. The definition of a format, the development history as well as the role of format adaption in the global and local media landscape will be examined. The main focus will lay on the question if and how format adaption has influenced the media world and why formats are so successful. These questions will be linked to the cultural imperialism and globalisation discourse. The theoretical construct will be complemented by the example of Big Brother to clarify the most important aspects of the argumentation. A discussion of this topic is valuable because the arguments raised in the positioning of format adaption reflect the general point in the media imperialism (critique) and globalisation debate.