Distribution Of Doctor Who Episodes
Where is it shown?
Doctor Who is a TV program made by the BBC to be shown on BBC channels across the world. Doctor Who is mainly shown via TV channels like BBC1 and BBC3. You can also watch the episodes online, 7 days after they are shown on TV, on BBC iPlayer. BBC iPlayer is a catch up service that the BBC provide online so that if you miss an episode of a BBC program,
you can catch up with it online. You can also buy Doctor Who on DVD. There are box sets for each series which are released after the series have finished.
However for the Doctor Who 5th anniversary special episode, the BBC made deals with cinema's to have the feature length episode shown in cinema's around the UK and America.
To What Extent Is The Issue Of Piracy?
The issue of piracy with Doctor Who is massive. There are always threats and worries about episodes and secrets being leaked because it's such a popular TV show. As I have spoken about previously, people were after the footage of the first episode from the second they heard it was making a come back. There is the story from when the first series of the show was in the editing process. The team in London needed to get the footage to Cardiff but the risk of someone getting hold of the footage was so great that the shows producers came up with the idea of labelling the footage with the word "Torchwood" which is an anagram of Doctor Who. This is what gave the show's main writer at the time, the idea of the spin of series "Torchwood".
In an article by the BBC they said that they do put in measures to try and stop piracy. The amount of detail and information in the article suggests that they do have a lot of problems with piracy and therefore they do a lot to stop it. The article focuses on online piracy as this is the biggest type of piracy. However the article also points out all the different types of online piracy that the BBC faces.
"Piracy can manifest itself in many forms. For example, in addition to illicit use of file sharing technologies, streaming of whole channels over the internet and services which allow unauthorised access to BBC iPlayer by internet users outside of the UK can also pose challenges. It is important that the BBC takes a consistent approach to tackling all forms of online piracy. If we didn't, there would be a risk that dealing with one type of piracy might simply encourage interest in other types."
I think that although this article is aimed at all BBC shows, it all applies to Doctor Who since Doctor Who is one of the BBC's flagship programs.
In 2013 the Doctor Who episode "The Day of the Doctor" was the most watched TV broadcast of the year. So thinking logically, there would be a lot of piracy issues surrounding Doctor Who.
Schedule, Channel and Times
When a new episode of Doctor Who is broadcast, it will either be on a Saturday, starting between 6 and 7 or if it is a special episode it may be on, on Christmas Day or Easter at around the same time. New episodes are always shown on BBC 1 as well. (This could be another hint to the fact that it's not just a children's program other wise it would be on CBBC)
I think the timing of the new episodes being broadcast is a good time to suit the target audience. Between 6 and 7 means that it's not too late for a young child to stay up but it's also late enough to avoid being on when families would be having tea or going out places. I think the BBC have done this intentionally to make sure that more people are available to watch the show.
Also the slot that Doctor Who has is a very good slot for viewing's in general. Not just viewings from the target audience. This is because generally, Saturday night is the kind of night where people stay in, order a take away and watch TV with the family. If a someone was sat down in front of the TV and they turned it on and Doctor Who was on, the chances are they wouldn't turn it of because usually on a Saturday you just watch TV for the sake of it and not because there is specifically one show that you want to watch. This could contribute to the high viewings.
Doctor Who being on BBC1 will also benefit the age group since (as I talked about before), it is a free channel and as long as you pay for your TV licence, you are allowed to watch BBC 1 for free. This means that it doesn't matter what the parents income is, the children will be able to watch Doctor Who. This is as a pose to if Doctor Who was on a channel that you had to pay for. If you were an adult and you wanted to watch Doctor Who on a channel you had to pay for then it's you decision to then go and pay to watch that channel so that you could watch Doctor Who. However if you are a child and you don't have control over the families income (which is likely), you wouldn't be able to just make that decision yourself, you would have to persuade an adult to pay for it and they might not want to.
So with Doctor Who I think the times and channel etc are very important when trying to reach out to the age range as a young age range doesn't have too much say in there own personal routine or schedule so you would have to please the parents as well as the children and in doing this, you make it suitable for an entire family to watch together.
Schedule, Channel and Times
When a new episode of Doctor Who is broadcast, it will either be on a Saturday, starting between 6 and 7 or if it is a special episode it may be on, on Christmas Day or Easter at around the same time. New episodes are always shown on BBC 1 as well. (This could be another hint to the fact that it's not just a children's program other wise it would be on CBBC)
I think the timing of the new episodes being broadcast is a good time to suit the target audience. Between 6 and 7 means that it's not too late for a young child to stay up but it's also late enough to avoid being on when families would be having tea or going out places. I think the BBC have done this intentionally to make sure that more people are available to watch the show.
Also the slot that Doctor Who has is a very good slot for viewing's in general. Not just viewings from the target audience. This is because generally, Saturday night is the kind of night where people stay in, order a take away and watch TV with the family. If a someone was sat down in front of the TV and they turned it on and Doctor Who was on, the chances are they wouldn't turn it of because usually on a Saturday you just watch TV for the sake of it and not because there is specifically one show that you want to watch. This could contribute to the high viewings.
Doctor Who being on BBC1 will also benefit the age group since (as I talked about before), it is a free channel and as long as you pay for your TV licence, you are allowed to watch BBC 1 for free. This means that it doesn't matter what the parents income is, the children will be able to watch Doctor Who. This is as a pose to if Doctor Who was on a channel that you had to pay for. If you were an adult and you wanted to watch Doctor Who on a channel you had to pay for then it's you decision to then go and pay to watch that channel so that you could watch Doctor Who. However if you are a child and you don't have control over the families income (which is likely), you wouldn't be able to just make that decision yourself, you would have to persuade an adult to pay for it and they might not want to.
So with Doctor Who I think the times and channel etc are very important when trying to reach out to the age range as a young age range doesn't have too much say in there own personal routine or schedule so you would have to please the parents as well as the children and in doing this, you make it suitable for an entire family to watch together.
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