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Next Doctor Who to premiere on iView

Matt Smith as Doctor Who will hit our screens on Sunday April 18 -but the ABC will offer it up on iView nearly 48 hours earlier.

The ABC will premiere the next season of Doctor Who, starring Matt Smith, on iView nearly 48 hours ahead of its television premiere, in a move designed to lure more viewers to sampling the iView platform.

‘The Eleventh Hour’ episode will be available on iView from 12:00am Saturday April 17 (just to be clear, stay up Friday night for this one).

It will screen on ABC1 at 7:30pm Sunday April 18.

Director of Television, Kim Dalton, said: “iView is a fantastic offering, an additional way for Australian audiences to watch ABC TV’s content – generally after, but in this special case before, its television broadcast.

“We hope the lure of Doctor Who – and what a fun and exciting lure it is – will provide incentive for more viewers to discover iView, and experience how convenient and easy-to-use it is.”

The new series stars Matt Smith (Party Animals) as the 11th Doctor and Karen Gillan as his companion Amy Pond. BAFTA-winning writer Steven Moffat (Coupling, Jekyll) now replaces Russell T. Davies as executive producer.

The episode is expected to air in the UK over Easter.

19 Responses

  1. Well, I also don’t have to bandwidth to waste time viewing on iView.

    And as the shows now made in HD whats the point of watching it in “medium” SD?

    I’m old enough Not to have to “See it now”, and am quiet happy to wait for the Blu-ray boxset in November , or when ever.

    Give it ten years and delivery of content via the web will probably become standard.

  2. I have ADSL2+ and everytime I have tried iview it has been very stuttery and almost unwatchable. I won’t try again until isp’s provide a faster service and quota free. In the UK the BBC player is available via virgin and sky set top boxes and runs like any normal tv show.

  3. I agree for die-hard fans 2 hours is too much so 2 weeks… but I’m sure they will re-watch it on ABC.

    I have unmetered access to iView as well but with a 1.5Mb connection you really can’t have anyone else doing anything on the connection at the same time without it being choppy, still way better than the services from the commercial networks.

  4. Well, my ISP does Not give me unmetered iView so I’ll probably just wait the extra day and watch it on tv. I don’t see the point in using up my quota just to see it a day earlier. As others have said, if this was happening even a few days after the UK premiere then I would -totally- be watching on iview – just not at 12am though because I expect the site will be slooooow when everyone else hits it.

    Its a little bit frustrating though to be honest. I know two weeks isn’t a lot compared to other shows we wait for, and its really good that the ABC is making the effort to get it to us sooner. But when you are involved in online communities and everyone from the UK (and the US) are talking about the current ep of something, you feel kinda left out when you have to wait however long (2 weeks in this case) to see it. If they could have premiered it the same weekend… would have been Awesome. Could be discussing it with online friends. Instead I guess I’ll be avoiding the internet for two weeks to try and stay spoiler free! : /

  5. @Dr Rudi – I think ABC might be doing this due to the show’s track record on iView.

    According to the ABC TV blog:
    “Doctor Who was ABC TV’s highest rating program on iView in April to December last year – with 378,000 views during that period.”

  6. This is a far more intriguing decision from a ‘content delivery’ perspective. I love my iView, but I’ll take or leave Dr Who.

    (Disclaimer – my ISP provides iView quota free).

    David, you must have an editorial comment here ? The future of television?

  7. ABC is heading in the right direction by trimming the broadcast delay to 2 weeks, but the iView thing seems a bit of a waste of effort.

    If the iView option was something like the day after its UK debut, yes I’d agree it’d provide a legit option for those who will otherwise seek the program elsewhere. But if a fan was prepared to hold off for the 2 weeks awaiting ABC’s Sunday broadcast, why on earth would they jump the gun by 48 hours to experience a streamed LoFi version after patiently waiting 2 weeks?

    As Paul says: it only seems to prove those in charge at ABC just can’t grasp how to properly handle and market the show… they just don’t have a clue.

  8. Great to see that the ABC has finally done right by fans and will screen the new series of Doctor Who with a minimal delay … almost “fast-tracking” for them!
    It will be a very successful season, just the little info available through the web and magazines is enough to convince me of that …
    David Tennant is greatly missed but this will blow us away!
    Thank you ABC!

    Jack!

  9. April 3 for the BBC and the same weekend for BBC America from memory!! Its a great turn-around. Not quite UKTV and Torchwood but a lot better than our last wait!!

  10. Marco – yep, they really did. Like we couldn’t wait to sit through the show about to begin, so let’s just have the poignant sign off ahead of schedule and we can turn to another channel. It’s not accidental, they really are consistently appallingly bad in promoting this show. I have no confidence this will change at all when Matt Smith’s episodes begin.

    So, the viewer can either look forward to more of the same or switch to watching it on Blu Ray and have done with it. I’ve written to the ABC, and they don’t seem to get it. Other shows don’t get promoted this stupidly on the ABC, which leads one to wonder just how little concern or understanding those responsible have in making sensible promos for Doctor Who. The BBC does know, so why we can’t have them revoiced? Maybe Aunty thinks it’s fun to have the ending of anticipated stories ruined. ABC: your home of mystery and suspense! 😉

  11. Paul, I didn’t watch the Australian airing of The End of Time Part 2, but that’s a disgrace if they used the 10th Doctor’s final words in the ad for the show! Total craziness.

    That’s a fairly good turnaround ABC for the new episodes (a fortnight behind the UK) but unfortunately not quick enough for I suspect most die hard fans.

  12. Is this meant to sweeten us up to the inevitable absence of HD again, when it finally does air? Blocky laggy niche delivery for a pricey imported showcase of quality SF entertainment, the kind we steadfastly refuse to make of our own, no matter how successful the genre continue to be on the big and small screen? Or should we feel nostalgic for a near-return to the 4.30am slot the show was once lumbered with?

    This inane gimmick is probably the work of the same marketing morons who serve up the “promos” for the show on the ABC. Whether it’s ruining “Utopia” by revealing Jacobi as the Master before it’s even aired, showing us the return of the Time Lords in the advert for 2009’s Xmas special The End Of Time Part One or giving away the Doctor’s final words about an hour before he gets to say them for the first time on Australian television, you can rely on these numbskulls to grab the wrong end of the stick every time.

    Whether that’s because they don’t care, don’t understand or actively hate the show is irrelevant. It ruins the investment of public funds and destroys the enjoyment for viewers. It also makes a mess of the time, effort, money and talent the people who make the show for us put in. There’s a reason the BBC don’t promote the show this badly – it is counter-productive!

    I’ll stick with watching it on Blu Ray! Stick that in your ear trumpet, Aunty!

  13. Great to see ABC come to the party and not leave the fans waiting so long. The Christmas Special/regeneration was already out on DVD on Amazon when it was shown here and Who fans are generally very resourceful so many had seen it already (which was reflected in the ratings). Interesting that they have chosen David Tennant’s 39th birthday to screen the first non-Tennant ep in this country!
    Brilliant that it is on iview – just a shame it means that it is not quite accessible to everyone!! But at least the wait isn’t long!

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