Television Logic I Don’t Understand
Cidu Bill on Jan 1st 2010
A pivitol Doctor WHo episode was aired in England today — if you’re a fan you know what I mean and if you’re not, there’s nothing gained by explaining — which won’t be shown in the United States and Canada for a couple of months. What I’m not understanding is why they don’t broadcast it on this side of the Pond (on BBC America) today as well. This question applies just as well to other programs, of course.
What is the possible downside of letting this air on American television on the same day? There’s no technological or logistical problem, of course. It’s not taking anything away from the BBC or the British public. And in the specific case of Doctor Who, it’s a safe bet that 97.3% of all American fans know how to and will simply download the episode tonight — which is what I’m doing — rendering the eventual American broadcast rights virtually worthless. My wife discusses Doctor Who and Torchwood (a spinoff) episodes online with friends and no exaggeration, not one of them is aware of when any of the episodes ran on American television.
If BBC America showed today’s episode tonight, they’d have a huge audience (by BBC America standards). Two months form now, American fans will be downloading and watching the start of the following Doctor Who season.
Filed in Bill Bickel, Doctor Who, television | 22 responses so far
Mel Jan 1st 2010 at 11:22 pm 1
Bill, it’s being shown on BBC America tomorrow evening.
Cidu Bill Jan 1st 2010 at 11:31 pm 2
They listened to me!!
I thought BBC-A just got around to showing Waters of Mars a week or so ago. I wonder whether this means they’ll be changing their old policy of running the shows several weeks behind the Brits.
Mel Jan 1st 2010 at 11:36 pm 3
I think both the BBC and BBCA realized how big a draw this episode would be and wanted to minimize the downloading. I also hope the trend continues.
That being said, I’ll continue to download episodes as long as BBCA continues to cut them up with commercials.
(and Wilf is my hero)
David N Jan 1st 2010 at 11:51 pm 4
They do the same thing to American shows being shown in England, Australia, and New Zealand. Lost is a great example. Still sucks, but I suppose at least it’s bilateral. Media companies are still lost in the 80s, pre-internet.
Cidu Bill Jan 1st 2010 at 11:57 pm 5
I know there are some American shows where European and Australian audiences are running several SEASONS behind. I mean what, do the American studios send somebody on foot to carry the actual tapes across the world?
You have to wonder about all the big corporations who haven’t grasped the whole “21st century” concept: I think it was about halfway through the Harry Potter series when the publishers finally realized that releasing the new books in England weeks before releasing them in the United States only meant a windfall for Amazon.uk.
Cidu Bill Jan 2nd 2010 at 12:00 am 6
You know, I’m tempted to set up comicsidontunderstand.uk, posting all the comics on a three-week delay, and see what happens…
furrykef Jan 2nd 2010 at 12:38 am 7
It’s probably some kind of corporate bureaucracy that only makes sense if you’re actually there to witness it first-hand (and even then it will only make some sense, I’m sure). I’m sure you’re aware that the inside of a company is usually a lot more political than its exterior lets on, and things often happen — or fail to happen — for no reason at all except that the chain of command, and the personalities of the people in that chain, make it difficult for things to happen any other way.
Keera Jan 2nd 2010 at 05:55 am 8
Bill, I’m one of those Europeans watching 2005 episodes of “L&O: SVU” as a first run here in Norway. I am not able to find information on why that is, but I can conjecture.
Back when we had only one TV station, we’d miss out on many hit TV-shows from abroad, simply because there wasn’t any time to broadcast them. This meant that the series had to be very popular to even get considered. They still do. Norway has only five TV stations that offer series with Norwegian sub-titles without subscription; add cable and we have another five. So there is still a limit to how many new series we can show.
Why one series is 5 years behind while another (like “CSI:NY” or “Ugly Betty”) is only 2 months behind? Popularity. And probably package deals. I know that TV stations go to huge conventions to see what’s coming up (much like spring fashion is shown in the fall). Blockbuster movies get sold in bundles with turkeys, and it all gets aired, eventually. I wouldn’t be surprised if something similar happens with TV series, but instead of turkeys you’d get older series, or are maybe forced to start at the beginning.
Nicole Jan 2nd 2010 at 09:05 am 9
Um Bill — sometimes CIDU-A is on a three week delay … lol.
But in answer to your question, it may have something to do with competing with local programs. By making foriegn programs wait one or two months, the home grown programs have the edge … maybe …. I thing … could be …. I don’t know
mitch4 Jan 2nd 2010 at 09:28 am 10
Recently there was a fuss (mostly positive, that is) on “Flash Forward” fan podcasts that, due to U.S. ABC’s holiday scheduling, an episode of FF was seen in Australia a day ahead of its U.S. broadcast (instead of the usual 6 days behind, if I’ve got that right).
TasmanSea Jan 2nd 2010 at 09:40 am 11
The one positive side of how they run a little later is that usually new episodes American programs will run every week in other countries, while that show is on rather than being randomly inter-cut with re-runs. Then when that season ends a different show will have a new episode every week in that timeslot. Even though they run a little later it is better to not have to be checking all the time what shows are going to be a re-run in a given week. It seems impractical to show every US show right when they broadcast in the states unless you just broadcast the US networks in their entirety- just in terms of fitting them into the schedule alongside local shows, and shows from third countries. I don’t know why programs couldn’t be at least in the same season though!
Vic in Chicagoland Jan 2nd 2010 at 11:27 am 12
From what I recall of a discussion on the Usenet group for SciFi & Doctor Who going back almost a year or so the delay had to do more with prior American broadcast contracts than anything else.
For about a year there were 3 different channels showing The Doctor- SciFi (now SyFy) with the new season, BBC-a with the previous season, and locally WTTW (Chicago public TV) with TWO seasons behind. Then it went to SyFY having previous season at like 4am Friday, Public TV with a mixed (as in: who knows what they’ll run when) schedule, and BBC-A with the 3 or 4 month lag for new episodes.
Looks like now it’s a day or two delay for new episodes, and Season 5 with the new Doctor is due out in spring (trailer on the BBC-A website).
turquoise cow Jan 2nd 2010 at 12:31 pm 13
I think that it probably has something to do with the “this is how we’ve always done it so this is how we’re going to keep doing it” mentality that permeates many industries these days, even (mind-bogglingly enough) media outlets. Television executives seem to be blissfully unaware that there are a ton of cable channels offering comparable and better programming than the networks, and that the internet is available. The same thing exists in the music industry, wherein despite all the chatter about how downloading is illegal and bad and takes money away from the creators, people still can and do download music, television, and movies for free.
Meanwhile, the networks are running on the same formats and schedules they have been since the 1950s, with “sweeps” and reruns and wondering why they’re not making as much as they have been.
Boise Ed Jan 2nd 2010 at 12:59 pm 14
I only wish that I COULD see Dr. Who, now that it has moved from PBS stations to BBC America. Is there some online site where one can watch it?
Keera Jan 2nd 2010 at 01:12 pm 15
Turquoise cow, one of the predictions I read for the coming decade is that the traditional commercial-based networks (ABC, NBC, CBS) will turn into subscription TV. It’s already happening to our first commercial-based channel here in Norway, mainly because there’s more money in cable. They’ll still have commercials, so they don’t have to charge much.
One thing that’s nice about Norway: No sweeps week. One thing that is annoying about Norway: No clue when they start up the new episodes after summer hiatus. I’ve missed the first episode of favorites a couple of times because the channels don’t start showing new episodes the same week.
Vic in Chicagoland Jan 2nd 2010 at 01:37 pm 16
@ Boise Ed
Sometimes on the U-Toob (not sure if it’s ok to leave the URL or not) you can get the episodes, but some get pulled in about a day or 2.
Otherwise there’s a site with ALL the episodes from 1963 on. Kind of a PITA, with 10 or 20 minute video segments, but everything that’s not been lost or destroyed (mostly Doctor #2) is there. As above- not sure if Bill allows URLs here, so feel free to email for the site and link.
Vic in Chicagoland Jan 2nd 2010 at 01:38 pm 17
Oh bleeding hell… forgot the address: vradin AT ameritech DOT net
sorry.
Cidu Bill Jan 2nd 2010 at 01:43 pm 18
URLs are fine here, Vic. Any message with two or more URLs gets automatically held for moderation (because that’s a red-flag for spam), but I’ll probably notice it within the hour and okay it.
Kamino Neko Jan 2nd 2010 at 04:30 pm 19
Space is showing them today, too - part of a marathon (currently re-airing The Next Doctor, then Planet of the Dead, Waters of Mars (which they first showed a week or two ago), then The End of Time premiers).
Heck, for Eccleston’s series, here in Canada, we got them mere days after the UK broadcast. (Too bad that didn’t continue for Tennant’s series.)
Vic in Chicagoland Jan 2nd 2010 at 06:40 pm 20
Here’s the link for the Doctor Who fans…
http://www.dailymotion.com/tardismedia
Happy New Year, enjoy.
mkilby Jan 3rd 2010 at 08:24 am 21
@ CIDU Bill (6) - Even though Mutts is available “live” for same-day reading through the syndicate (for example, on the Washington Post’s website, but also elsewhere), I still read it with a two-week delay on the Mutts “home” page (http://muttscomics.com/strip.aspx), simply because I dislike the coloration inflicted by the syndicate.
@ Vic (20) - thanks for the link. I remember watching Dr. Who on PBS years ago; I had no idea that the BBC was still producing new episodes. It will be interesting to see whether the scriptwriting and the effects are still as cheesey as they used to be.
jambo Jan 4th 2010 at 03:17 pm 22
Dr Who gets even worse treatment in Canada. It gets shown on CBC six months to 1 year after being originally shown on BBC. Not to mention the fact that in the season finale for 2008 they cut out half the show to make it fit into the hour time slot. Downloading is the only way here.