0/5

Airdate: Frozen Planet

Nine premieres a new natural history series narrated by David Attenborough.

Nine premieres Frozen Planet this Sunday night, which it acquired from the BBC.

The natural history series is narrated by David Attenborough and comes from the makers of the Planet Earth series.

Frozen Planet offers a breath-taking perspective on the visual beauty of our planet,” said Michael Healy, Nine’s Director of Programming. “Quality content from celebrated program makers such as David Attenborough continues to resonate powerfully with our audiences.”

The legendary David Attenborough presents Frozen Planet, a landmark series that traverses the two greatest wilderness areas on Earth – the Arctic and Antarctic – from Sunday, October 30, at 6.30pm on Channel Nine.

Over six enthralling episodes, this series from the BBC Natural History Unit paints a portrait of the polar regions that will take your breath away at a time when melting of the ice caps means they might soon be changed forever.

This series crosses the spectacular landscape of the North and South Poles and gives viewers a never-seen-before look at their charismatic wildlife. Using unique aerial photography and underwater cameras that plunge into the icy polar depths, we follow the life journeys of the animals struggling for survival in this unforgiving environment: the polar bear, the albatross and the adelie penguin.

Frozen Planet is an ultimate natural history of the fascinating polar regions. Its journey into the southern hemisphere starts at the Antarctic Convergence, where cold water from Antarctica meets the warmer currents from the north. This massive expanse of ocean includes the roughest waters in the world, in the Drake Passage,and remote sub-Antarctic islands packed with wildlife.

In the northern hemisphere we traverse the Arctic Circle, which includes much of Alaska, the tundra regions of northern Canada and the vast taiga forests of Siberia.

Finally the series explores man’s presence at the North and South Poles – a presence that almost pales into insignificance in the grandeur of two of the most inhospitable regions on Earth.

Sunday, October 30, at 6.30pm
Episode two – Wednesday, November 2 at 8.30pm

20 Responses

  1. So was it aired on 9 or not? My 6yo was insisting it was on 8.30 on 9 from the ad but it wasn’t on EPG at 8pm (something else was listed on normal 9 or No EPG was on digital) or in the tv guide but now it is showing as if it were on the digital channel on the EPG – he will be devastated if we missed it!

  2. The ad on WIN last night said it was being shown over 4 weeks, if there are 7 episodes where did the last 3 episodes go to. I don’t trust any TV station to show a whole series these days so I will be buying the DVD from Amazon UK when it is released in December, the promos look too good to miss any of it, plus I really don’t want to watch it with the WIN logo messing up the screen!

  3. FYI – just found out while the eps are just under 60 min long, the last 10 minutes of each is a mini making of doco for the ep. So I’m guessing while Nine has set aside 1 hours it will probably run 5 min long so they can get in their ads.

    This is no the first time the BBC has done this, South Pacific (seen here in the ABC) did similar.

    Also I still don’t see Nine airing the 2nd ep before the BBC in the UK, just checked the EPG and TBA is still listed of the 2nd ep time slot next Wednesday.

  4. Johnson, I’m also wondering whether ABC will sign another BBC Worldwide output deal. But with programs like Frozen Planet going to Nine they might not think it’s worth the money long-term. Just remember a typical output deal means domestic network #1 have ‘first look’ at various programs & then name their price, but then domestic network #2 could bid over that price. After that, network #1 could come back with a higher price locking out network #2, but we all know in most cases ABC don’t use their right-of-reply option.

  5. It can’t be twice a week as the first part only goes to air in the UK in just over 14 hours. And like I said in my last post I don’t see how it can air next Wednesday as part 2 won’t go to air in the UK until some 10 hours after the AU time in the story.

    Check the BBC web site.

    Personally I think it would be better on Sunday night on Nine, then encored on GEM in HD (and maybe full length) during the following week.

  6. Twice a week, not sure how well this will rate, since it is on 9 and twice a week might be a bit of a commitment! Plus Wed has been quite competitive and their dodoc haven’t done too well on Wednsedays!

  7. @Johnson – it’s not 26 parts, no doco from the BBC has ever had 26 parts as far as I know, according the BBC site there are 7 parts to this series (not 6 David). Meaning it should end first week on December on Nine, so very little reason for them to hold any eps over until 2012.

    Also if it’s on Wednesdays in the UK (Thursday about 6am here) then how can Nine show the second ep before the UK? According the BBC’s own site it will be on 9pm each Wednesday in the UK, clarification please.

    Also as to the number of eps, are we getting a very heavily edited ‘international’ editing of Frozen Planet?

    bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mfl7n/episodes/guide

  8. Won’t be watching on Nine as it will be butchered (unless they won’t be showing any ads). Hopefully they’ll repeat it shortly after in HD in a 1½ hour slot on GEM.

  9. I know its an obvious thing to say but ill watch this on GEM in HD if they show it but id rather get this on Blu Ray , nature shows look awesome in Full HD.
    Looks to be a good series to.

  10. Looking forward to this – just a shame it’s not going to be in HD, and shame there will be adverts every 10 minutes.
    On second thoughts I might wait for the Blu-Ray to come out.

  11. I have said this before, but the ABC must sign a new exclusive output deal with the BBC, to prevent more programs going to commercial networks. A 26-part program such as Frozen Planet will have been a stable part of the ABC’s Sunday night schedule in 2012. The BBC may have its own financial troubles but it doesn’t mean it should always sell programs to a commercial network in preference to a public broadcaster.

  12. If it rates, they’ll pull it and give it a break over the non-ratings period.

    If it doesn’t rate well, they’ll continue screening it through the non-rating period.

    But, by then (Dec 8), the full series will be available in the UK in both DVD and Blu-Ray formats.

  13. Do I need to ask if this will be edited down, the BBC version (to air on the 26th in the UK) will be a full 60 min long, will we get just 45min in SD?

    On the plus side Nine will be fast tracking this one, even if it’s just 75% of the UK version.

Leave a Reply