Doctor Who S3 starts in US in July

[edc]

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=20070423scifi01
==

The British run is in its fourth week, with the 13-week series ending June 23.

I'd still prefer if they could pay enough to make it a "coproduction" and have (more or less) worldwide premieres, but starting the run a week or two after the British one concludes is quite acceptable.

[dianebrat]

if only they could get "Dr Who Confidential" to come over with it.

Diane

[edc]

To follow-up myself, now that they will be "caught up," it would be really nice if SFC could find a way to air the 2007 Christmas special somewhere around the holiday.

I, for one, will not be in any kind of Christmas Spirit when "Runaway Bride" premieres on a day it is 100F outside in the shade. Then again, it is kind of appropriate, given that it is more or less a year after they filmed it...

[dcheesi]

Interesting. Didn't BBCA say something about airing Doctor Who episodes, about the same time as they announced getting Torchwood? Even if it's just re-runs, I'd be slightly surprised if Sci-Fi was comfortable with them airing shows from only two seasons back...?

[JimSpence]

The only problem I see is that SciFi isn't in HD.

I'll keep downloading the episode and burn to DVD to get the better quality. Okay, that's not HD, but it's better than DirecTV's SciFi in SD.

Wouldn't it be nice if this were aired on UHD?

[TonyD79]

Watching fourth episode of Season 3 while typing this. Totally agree. The versions I have are recorded HD downrezzed to 480p widescreen. They look pretty good. Watching on Sci Fi will be a step down....

[cheesesteak]

I'm downloading and watching S3 as it airs. I will have forgotten large parts of episodes by July, so while it won't be new by the time SciFi airs it, I'll still watch.

[tirofiban]

I'm really impressed the Sci Fi channel is going to show Season 3 so soon.

In the big scheme of things, it seems like the distribution of Dr. Who to the US is getting more efficient. I remember in the 80s, the US was several years behind the UK.

I wonder if they feel pressure from bit torrent?

[Pralix]

I'm really impressed the Sci Fi channel is going to show Season 3 so soon.

In the big scheme of things, it seems like the distribution of Dr. Who to the US is getting more efficient. I remember in the 80s, the US was several years behind the UK.

I wonder if they feel pressure from bit torrent?


No. There is more money to be made by showing it. More advertising. In the 80's it was PBS that aired Dr. Who. Not a whole lot of money to be made by the BBC in that arrangement. No need for them to hurry up and rush the shows to the USA. Now that Sci-Fi is running the series, they make more money and it is "easier" for the BBC to send it over.

When the new seasons were being produced, the BBC did not want to sell them to PBS. They wanted it to run on a large sat/cable channel that was in the basic tiers of service. They didn't want to run it on BBC America because that is usually put into a premium service tier.

[Mike Farrington]

That's good news. I've been too busy this past month to download and watch the 3rd season. Since the delay isn't as big as it was for previous seasons, I think I can hold-out and wait for the U.S. air dates.

However, I do need to download the last 3 Torchwood shows of the season. Who knows when those might show up (and how edited for content they will be).

-Mike

[tirofiban]

No. There is more money to be made by showing it. More advertising. In the 80's it was PBS that aired Dr. Who. Not a whole lot of money to be made by the BBC in that arrangement. No need for them to hurry up and rush the shows to the USA. Now that Sci-Fi is running the series, they make more money and it is "easier" for the BBC to send it over.

When the new seasons were being produced, the BBC did not want to sell them to PBS. They wanted it to run on a large sat/cable channel that was in the basic tiers of service. They didn't want to run it on BBC America because that is usually put into a premium service tier.

Pralix,

It is all about money and advertising.

But there was certainly money and advertising available in the 80s in the US.

Maybe PBS wasn't the way to go, but there is no reason why, financially, Dr. Who could not have aired in the US at the same time it aired in the UK.

In the early 80s, there was little SciFi on TV. TV-Star Trek was dead. There was no competition. The BBC could have done better with it's distribution for the US. Heck, they managed to air the Five Doctors on time.

I think it's more of the BBC always being dense when it comes to the US. To this day, they still have no clue about the US market share. Their Dr. Who DVDs are WAY overpriced. Have you done the math on how much it would cost to own all of the Tom Baker seasons of Dr. Who on DVD? How can Ark in Space, cost more than the major Hollywood DVD release? The BBC has made one bad business decision after another with Dr. Who and BBC programs in general for the US. The BBC treats the US viewer like a 2nd class citizen. In the mid 80s, we had to watch Resurrection of the Daleks without sound effects or music. The fact we can't see Dr. Who in HD now is another example. I really think the BBC could be making much more money than it is in the US.

And I do think in one way or another that bitorrent does put some pressure on the situation, for both SciFi and BBC.