It may be a small world, but it’s remarkable how many barriers remain to easy viewing.

There is exotic and beguiling television all across the world, far away by plane but near enough by satellite, cable or Web to be tantalizingly just out of reach.

Television reveals the limits of globalization. In the era of Mumbai call centers, online offshore banking, Skype chats, drone attacks, satellite phones and avian flu pandemics, national borders seem almost quaint. Yet foreign shows that should be as easily found in Minnesota as Monte Carlo are not readily available.

Instead, Americans rely on trickle-down distribution. Audiences in the United States have been sampling the best of British television — and “Benny Hill” — since “The Forsyte Saga” reached PBS in 1969. They more recently discovered Nordic Noir police thrillers and other Scandinavian cult favorites, including the Danish series “The Crime” and “Borgen.”