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Specials to Air on BBCA in US

AviTrek

Fleet Captain
Fleet Captain
http://scifiwire.com/2009/05/season-five-of-doctor-who.php

Looks like BBC America will be airing the specials before Sci Fi. "The Next Doctor" airs June 27th. "Planet of the Dead" will be in July. Torchwood is also airing in July.

If I had to guess I'd say BBCA is using the two specials as lead ins for Torchwood. So "Planet of the Dead" will probably air July 4th, with Torchwood running July 6th-10th. It's just a shame BBCA still doesn't have an HD channel.
 
http://scifiwire.com/2009/05/season-five-of-doctor-who.php

Looks like BBC America will be airing the specials before Sci Fi. "The Next Doctor" airs June 27th. "Planet of the Dead" will be in July. Torchwood is also airing in July.

If I had to guess I'd say BBCA is using the two specials as lead ins for Torchwood. So "Planet of the Dead" will probably air July 4th, with Torchwood running July 6th-10th. It's just a shame BBCA still doesn't have an HD channel.
Really? I thought BBC HD was launching worldwide this year. Or maybe it was just in Australia.
 
Good, I'm glad BBCA is getting the advantage over SciFi. Skiffy treats the franchise with such careless abandon, gut-editing, and reckless timing that I could care less if that channel ever airs another episode of the series again. Let BBCA take it completely and use it and the more-popular-in-America Torchwood as a foundation towards growing the channel... :techman:
 
Go BBCAmerica! Hopefully the specials won't get trimmed down to fit into an hour timeslot. Skiffy, for all its faults, gave us the Christmas specials in 90 minute timeslots.
 
Good, I'm glad BBCA is getting the advantage over SciFi. Skiffy treats the franchise with such careless abandon, gut-editing, and reckless timing that I could care less if that channel ever airs another episode of the series again. Let BBCA take it completely and use it and the more-popular-in-America Torchwood as a foundation towards growing the channel... :techman:

Don't know how many times this has to be said, but here we go again...

That's a sure way to cut the viewing figures for Doctor Who down. BBCA is a higher tier channel in many US cable markets. Skiffy is not. Ergo, Skiffy has a wider audience.

I'm not going to see the specials if Skiffy doesn't air them. Rather, I'll wait until they are on PBS if I have to do so. It's cheaper.

The issue with Skiffy is that Skiffy needs enough episodes of Who to fill a slot on SciFi Friday. The specials don't supply that number individually. They could do so in aggregate. I expect them to air during the spring of next year, leading to Series 5, making an extended season of Who or for short season in the spring and the regular one in the summer. It doesn't make logical sense for Skiffy to pony up for the specials right now. But it does make sense to get them, let BBCA have first run on these, then get first run on Series 5. I wouldn't expect BBCA to get first run on any regular Who series unless the cable providers start including it as a lower, nonpremium service.
 
Good, I'm glad BBCA is getting the advantage over SciFi. Skiffy treats the franchise with such careless abandon, gut-editing, and reckless timing that I could care less if that channel ever airs another episode of the series again. Let BBCA take it completely and use it and the more-popular-in-America Torchwood as a foundation towards growing the channel... :techman:

Don't know how many times this has to be said, but here we go again...

Yeah, blah-blah-blah, I've heard this little rant before. And I mean you no offense by saying that, but whether SciFi is more readily available to the US viewers than BBCA (which I won't debate with you, but I feel certain may not be quite as clear-cut as you seem to believe it be) it doesn't change the fact that BBCA is far superior in advertisements, timeslots, presentation of generally the entire material rather than a chopped down, assembly-line format from an NBC station, and takes the time to actually create a bookend commercial cap that edits usually quite seamlessly into the show.

I'm sorry you don't get BBCA. If it makes you feel any better, I don't either. But, the fact remains that SciFi treats it like some secondhand afterthought to buffer a slot between Stargate: Canceled and fucking wrestling. They have never cared about the show, nor have they ever tried to create a fanbase for it. So, while there may be a chance that five extra people that don't already know of the show's existence who watch television on Friday nights might stumble on it on SciFi (and stay the four minutes of show before the next commercial), I'd still prefer the lesser four people seeing it advertised on BBCA so much it peaks their interest, and make it a point to check the show out. If so, they'll encounter a show that's presented as primetime, grade-A material.....a flagship series, versus an eccentric curiosity.

Not to mention, it leads perfectly into Torchwood... ;)

Just my opinion, mind you.
 
Good, I'm glad BBCA is getting the advantage over SciFi. Skiffy treats the franchise with such careless abandon, gut-editing, and reckless timing that I could care less if that channel ever airs another episode of the series again. Let BBCA take it completely and use it and the more-popular-in-America Torchwood as a foundation towards growing the channel... :techman:

Don't know how many times this has to be said, but here we go again...

Yeah, blah-blah-blah, I've heard this little rant before. And I mean you no offense by saying that, but whether SciFi is more readily available to the US viewers than BBCA (which I won't debate with you, but I feel certain may not be quite as clear-cut as you seem to believe it be) it doesn't change the fact that BBCA is far superior in advertisements, timeslots, presentation of generally the entire material rather than a chopped down, assembly-line format from an NBC station, and takes the time to actually create a bookend commercial cap that edits usually quite seamlessly into the show.

I'm sorry you don't get BBCA. If it makes you feel any better, I don't either. But, the fact remains that SciFi treats it like some secondhand afterthought to buffer a slot between Stargate: Canceled and fucking wrestling. They have never cared about the show, nor have they ever tried to create a fanbase for it. So, while there may be a chance that five extra people that don't already know of the show's existence who watch television on Friday nights might stumble on it on SciFi (and stay the four minutes of show before the next commercial), I'd still prefer the lesser four people seeing it advertised on BBCA so much it peaks their interest, and make it a point to check the show out. If so, they'll encounter a show that's presented as primetime, grade-A material.....a flagship series, versus an eccentric curiosity.

Not to mention, it leads perfectly into Torchwood... ;)

Just my opinion, mind you.

I don't have the numbers handy, but SciFi without a doubt has a much larger availability than BBC-America. SciFi is included in just about every cable package no matter how small, while BBCA is only in the largest digital packages. The difference is roughly the equivalent to comparing NBC to SciFi. Not to mention SciFi now has an HD channel available in most areas, while BBCA still has not even announced when their HD channel will be available.
 
Just found some numbers. BBCA claims 64 million households and SciFi claims 93 million households. There are a total of 131 million households with TVs in the US and NBC reaches about 130 million of those. So in terms of %, the drop to BBCA is larger than the drop from broadcast to SciFi.
 
Well, the cable package I have includes SciFi and BBC A, so I'm set either way.

How 'bout y'all?

I do as well but I'm glad that so far I haven't had to rely on either in order to see them.:cool:

BBC America has made a nice little Sci-Fi Saturday Night slot and I like that Torchwood has done well if only to show that not all Americans are as closed-minded as sometimes thought (though it does question their critical faculties a bit ;)).
 
Torchwood does seem to do impressive things for BBCAm, and earning a reference on primetime network TV (Knightrider) seems very impressive
 
I'm certain SciFi has a broader advantage. My points stand about the superiority of BBCA, though...
 
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