Dr Who broadcast notes

CalliArcale · Mar 23, 2005

Viewers in the UK, Canada, and New Zealand already have the series coming, but the BBC is still working on getting it to viewers elsewhere. This thread will track who is showing it where and (if known) when. Cut-and-pasted from Outpost Gallifrey: BBC1 (UK), March 26, 7pm CBC Television (Canada), April 5, 8pm PrimeTV (New Zealand), Date Unknown That's what's solidly known, still. But there is some word on other broadcasters. Dutch channel Nederland 3 has apparently purchased the rights to broadcast the series. They have not yet announced a date. For Australian viewers, word is out that ABC is now interested in buying the series. They were very concerned about how it would play to non-fan viewers, but their executives have now seen the first episode and apparently all doubts have been dispelled. As far as I know, no deal has been signed, but they have publicly said that they are interested in buying it, so it's probably just down to the details of "when" and "how much" now. Their spokesman also indicated that it would be in a prime-time slot. Still no further word on an American broadcaster. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff." -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink" </div>

qzzq · Mar 23, 2005

Dutch channel Nederland 3 has apparently purchased the rights to broadcast the series. They have not yet announced a date. ... Still no further word on an American broadcaster. Hey, I can tape it for you! <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> *** </div>

CalliArcale · Apr 6, 2005

The Australian Broadcast Company has officially confirmed their purchase of Doctor Who broadcast rights. It will debut in Australia in mid-May. Still anxiously awaiting word on a US broadcaster, though.... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff." -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink" </div>

rogers_buck · Apr 6, 2005

You have to wonder why the producers don't do a PPV web cast. They could blow-off all the winky distributors all together and make a packet. PBS would still pick the series up in due course but the rest of us would be happy to pay a few pund to see the damned thing at 300kb/s.

CalliArcale · Apr 7, 2005

Apparently the BBC is working on a plan to distribute their entire programming over the Internet as streaming video to any subscriber who pays the normal BBC license fee. Of course, that gives you an idea of why they DON'T transmit stuff over the Internet normally. The BBC doesn't subsist by selling advertising space. They subsist by a combination of TV license fees and government funding. So they don't want to provide programming over the Internet without making sure they get their license fee. I like the idea of paying per program, though. A BBC online pay-per-view thing would be awesome. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff." -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink" </div>

rogers_buck · Apr 8, 2005

Now that you mention it... The tax that goes to the BBC comes from the TV tax that britons pay. They used to have vans that would drive around with directional antennae and sniff out the 49MHz PAL IF frequency. What I'm curious about is how they enforce the TV tax in this day and age where the IF can be done in software and the display device is a TFT flat panel? What of brits who buy TV tuner USB or PCI cards on eBay? That whole scheme must be wearing thin... I don't mind paying for decent programming SANS commercials. Commercials all but destroy a creative work. Whenever I watch Enterprise on UPN I feel like I've surfed into a German porn site with all of the obnoxious commercial pop-ups that drag on and on and on and on. I usually get bored and wander off after the first or second fusealade.

SpaceKiwi · Apr 8, 2005

Don't you guys have a BBC-US channel over there? Wouldn't that be the first port of call for any first-run screening of a new Beeb product? Edited to say: I've seen station 'commercials' on Prime, advertising the fact they have the new Doc on the way. 'Coming soon' is how it's phrased, which is NZ TV speak for maybe only a couple of weeks away from an official screening date. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Who is this superhero? Henry, the mild-mannered janitor ... could be!-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bring Back The Black! </div>

rogers_buck · Apr 8, 2005

Yes, BBC America is on my satellite service (Dish Network). I think cali would have indicated if Dr. Who was to make the rounds on that channel. From what I have seen, what is on BBC America I can watch on PBS sans commercials. Coupling, BBC News, etc. BBC America has commercials.

CalliArcale · Apr 9, 2005

Correct, BBC America will *not* run Doctor Who. The BBC has publicly announced that, but given no real explanation, unfortunately. It may be that they feel they can make more money off it by selling it to broadcasters than by transmitting it themselves. BBC America doesn't have as wide a distribution as some other networks. I think what they'd really like to do is get it on a broadcast network, as they have in Canada and Australia and New Zealand. But so far, the only genuine interest that I've heard of is from the Sci-Fi Channel (basic cable) and they ended up turning it down. <img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" /> Rumor has it we'll hear about something this month, but we all know how unreliable rumor can be. Especially when it comes to Doctor Who. There are lots of shows that don't run on BBC America. They have kind of a strange lineup, IMHO. Most of the time when I turn it on, it's one of their reality shows or a home improvement show or BBC News. Occasionally they'll run a comedy show. The timing is also a bit unfortunate; it doesn't match up well to American networks, and so they can lose viewers simply because people are still watching something else when a new BBC program comes on. (A lot of programs start on the quarter-hour, and some at odder times yet, such as 2:55 or somesuch.) <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff." -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink" </div>

rogers_buck · Apr 9, 2005

The timing thing is easy to solve. All they need is about >$20,000 worth of hardware to store 6 hours of digital uplink. I haven't watched the channel but a couple of times, but I'm pretty sure I saw commercials. Given that they are inserting commercials, they must have store-and-forward of some kind running. I wonder what gives with that?

rogers_buck · Apr 9, 2005

On the Internet VOD front, it seems like that is a no loose proposition. With all of the DRM capabilities built into Windows Media there is little danger of anyone making a copy. It's more likely a canadian will encode the broadcast and put it on the Internet. Geeks like Dr. Who and geeks in general have broadband. It doesn't seem like it would be a market spoiler to make the shows available for VoD if you pay the one-time license fee.

CalliArcale · Apr 9, 2005

Oh I know the timing thing is easy to solve. If nothing else, surely they can find padding of some kind. So that of course begs the question of why BBC America still persists in timing its shows the way they time them in Britain, which means they have a serious competitive disadvantage in a market where everybody times their shows consistently on the half-hour. I guess it's just one of their quirks. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> BTW, they don't run anything at the same time as in Britain, so it's not like they even need any extra hardware. Just a little more planning. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff." -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink" </div>

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