Doctor Who pulled from Netflix

[Guy Gardener]

International rights are divided up into several distribution zones called regions, but I think this definition of region is not the same as the 5 DVD regions, that dvds had before we got bored of complying with that.

http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/netflix-ted-sarandos-global-licensing-rights-1201655380/

Global licensing doesn't exist (yet).

I don't know how many regions there are, but Netflix has different streaming options in most of the 190 countries they service because Netflix has to bargain individually for the content rights from the media providers of all of their products individually, rather than be allowed to buy a collected bundle of everything for everywhere at a reasonable discount, if we want to compare economies of scale.

 

[DimesDan]

So yeah, the whole thing about BBC wanting to provide a streaming service for the UK and US makes sense.

You are aware, we already have one, they don't have the full back catalogue of things like All4 does, but that's no biggy.

 

[Mage]

Is it something like the Dutch 'Uitzending Gemist?', which basicly translated to 'Missed a show?'? It's where, if you missed something on tv, you've got a while to watch it back online or through an app, but they don't actually host complete shows and movies?

 

[DimesDan]

Is it something like the Dutch 'Uitzending Gemist?', which basicly translated to 'Missed a show?'? It's where, if you missed something on tv, you've got a while to watch it back online or through an app, but they don't actually host complete shows and movies?

BBC iPlayer

 

[Mage]

Guess we're lucky in the Netherlands. I just checked Netflix, and Who is still on there.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

As is Germany. Seasons 1-8 of nu Who still available.
We never had the classics, though.

Edit: For now till the rest of the month. I expect a renewel of the license, though.

 

[farmkid]

Not so lucky here in the US. It's DVD only as of a few minutes ago.

I'm rather bummed by this. I've had it in my queue for quite some time and just got around to starting it. I mean really just got started. I watched the first episode Saturday morning as I was working out, then later that day I saw the news it was going away.

 

[Overgeeked]

I also heard the BBC was planning to launch their own streaming service in the US sometime this year. Maybe that's related to this?

Chances are this is the reason. The Beeb will also pull Doctor Who from Netflix UK in about six months. They're pulling most / all of their programming from most / all online streaming services. There's literally zero business reason to do that unless they're gearing up to launch an international version of iPlayer and/or their own subscription streaming service.

 

[DimesDan]

Chances are this is the reason. The Beeb will also pull Doctor Who from Netflix UK in about six months. They're pulling most / all of their programming from most / all online streaming services. There's literally zero business reason to do that unless they're gearing up to launch an international version of iPlayer and/or their own subscription streaming service.

Doing so would be highly risky given the present political climate concerning the BBC.

 

[Squiggy]

Not so lucky here in the US. It's DVD only as of a few minutes ago.

It's a bold business move when you don't have anything new coming in God knows how long.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Imagine a future, where copyright holders of media content, kick your door down, and fry their content out of your brain unless you pay their license.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Netflix has had the same seemingly random cherry picked selections since the beginning of time. Amazon Streaming had the same selections plus a couple of others. If nothing else, it would be nice if whoever has it would stream the entire series.

That's part of the reason why I'm loath to subscribe to any streaming services. I'm a completist and I take great pride in the fact that I own nearly every single classic Doctor Who story available. (I'm currently only missing 9 stories total: "An Unearthly Child," "Kinda," "Snakedance," "Mawdryn Undead," "Terminus," "Enlightenment," "The Awakening," "The Happiness Patrol," & "The Curse of Fenric.") Classic Doctor Who on Netflix, Hulu, & Amazon is only good for the new casual fans, since the few cherry-picked stories that they included were usually some of the best, usually the same ones that were among the first to come out on DVD.

 

[Overgeeked]

Doing so would be highly risky given the present political climate concerning the BBC.

Something they said in the recent announcements struck me as odd. It was something to the effect of "after 2020, Doctor Who will be self-sustaining". I'm thinking they're planning on using DW as the flagship series for their international streaming service, a la CBS All Access. And will use the funds from that subscription service to pay for DW and other series. This would ease a lot of financial burden on the BBC's books. And they could give Brits free access as part of their license fees, similar to how iPlayer works now. It's probably just iPlayer with paid access abroad. We'll see. But that kind of set up would look really good to the bean counters as it would, in theory, more than pay for itself.

It's a bold business move when you don't have anything new coming in God knows how long.

If you're following the press releases at all you'll know they're beginning filming of Series 10 in May 2016, and after a Christmas special in 2016, the full series will air in the Spring of 2017. Series 11, Chibnall's first as showrunner, will begin filming in May 2017 (whilst Series 10 is still airing), and air in the Spring of 2018. There's no official word (that I know of) whether there will be a Christmas episode in 2017, though it seems almost a certainty as the Christmas specials have been the highest rated broadcast almost every single year since 2005.

 

[DimesDan]

Something they said in the recent announcements struck me as odd. It was something to the effect of "after 2020, Doctor Who will be self-sustaining". I'm thinking they're planning on using DW as the flagship series for their international streaming service, a la CBS All Access. And will use the funds from that subscription service to pay for DW and other series. This would ease a lot of financial burden on the BBC's books. And they could give Brits free access as part of their license fees, similar to how iPlayer works now. It's probably just iPlayer with paid access abroad. We'll see. But that kind of set up would look really good to the bean counters as it would, in theory, more than pay for itself.

Not. Going. To. Happen.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Iplayer is owned by the BBC, the government, it's job is to see the public entertained. No advertising, no subscription. Right now without increasing their infrastructure too much, they could possibly offer a global subscription, a few dollars a month to maybe 10 to 40 million foreigners living anywhere on the globe.

Of course then you get back into those Global Zones for licensing, Iplayer isn't licensed to play content they don't own out side of the UK... Therefore the only way that Iplayer could go global is if it only streams (worldwide) content that it itself made by itself, that it owns the licenses to, like the Dr Who catalog.

Totally doable.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

It just hit me, this is why every little clip I've tried posting on youtube has gotten a copyright warning and been blocked.
It used to be no problem posting something there, but everything the last few months has been blocked PDQ.
A shame they can't tell the difference between a 1 minute clip and an entire episode. Clips might even increase interest in buying the DVD's or the new streaming service.

 

[The Four Doctor]

Can you please stop the ranting about copyright law?
Copyright law does not just protect "corporations", it also protects the minnows and independents that have managed to stay free of the majors. These people would be stuffed if the anti copyright mob got their way.

 

[MacLeod]

That's the first time I've seen Hulu mentioned. Clearly the Beeb is looking to get more money one way or another.
As far as NuWho, I have all the DVD's & blu-rays, so not a big deal for me. Did Netflix have the classic series? Maybe it's about pushing out overstock of DVD's.
Could Amazon be getting exclusive rights? They already have other BBC shows on Prime.

But isn't that how all buisnesses work they want to sell their product for as a high a price as they can, whilst a reseller wants to buy it for as a low as a price so they can.

But surely this just highlights one of the great flaws about streaming services, shows will be pulled when rights run out. Whilst with a physical copy it doesn't matter as you can watch it when you please and not be held to the whims of which ever executive is in charge when it's time to regnotiate rights for shows.

 

[Guy Gardener]

3 dollars a month for a streaming service, or 140 dollars per season from the local Borders. (I made up those numbers, and I think Borders went bankrupt a long time ago.)

Buying first hand DVDs or Blurays is unimaginable to some Nerds

Maybe they wait 5 to 10 years till ebay has third hand options that are reduced by 60 percent, or maybe they just pray that in 10 years there will be something more awesome in front of them that puts rewatching Doctor Who into perspective.

Think about how much you spent buying Andromeda on VHS.

Sure, you still have the tapes, but do you have a Video player?

 

[MacLeod]

Yep, I still have a VHS player stored away in the loft.