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Frozen Planet ahead of BBC

It looks as if an episode of David Attenborough's Frozen Planet will air in Australia before being screened on the BBC in the UK.

It looks as if tonight’s episode of David Attenborough’s Frozen Planet will air in Australia before being screened on the BBC in the UK.

According to Guide synopsis, tonight Nine screens the episode “Spring.”

Spring is explored as the sun returns life to both Poles. Landscapes that had been locked in darkness for three months are suddenly bathed in light. Hibernating residents begin to wake and the first migrants start arriving.

But that episode won’t air in the UK until 9pm November 2nd, which when adjusted for the dateline is actually 8am Thursday November 3 in Australia.

So it’s a bit of a coup.

Admittedly it’s not the first time an international episode has aired in Australia, but it is a rarity.

In 2009 Seven screened an episode of FlashForward ahead of the US because of their Thanksgiving. That led to the episode being added to torrents and press including the NY Post and the Hollywood Reporter slamming us.

TVByTheNumbers also ran a story under the headline: ‘If FlashForward’s ratings drop this Thursday, blame the Aussies!’

Cheers for that.

12 Responses

  1. I tried last night to watch a bit of this but i have permanently given up , too many promos and banners getting plastered across the bottom of the screen.These mainly being UnderBelly.Ill wait as i said the last time for the Blu Ray.
    On another note , whilst this is a good show ive seen many of these things before and just as good as this is , but to be there in person would be truly beautiful.

  2. If memory serves (in Iron Chef voice), I remember ABC1 racing ahead of the UK’s Channel Four in the last season of Time Team, but after four episodes realising their mistake by dumping the remaining season until Four had screened them all.

  3. No it’s not in HD or the full length, I really which they would do that on GEM.

    @David, sorry if I sounded a little rude in my first post, sometimes I type without re-reading it again before posting.

    Do we have official word from BBC or Nine as to how this happened? Also I find it amazing Nine isn’t crowing about it. “Fast tracking Frozen Planet so fast it hasn’t aired in the UK yet…”

  4. “… 8am Thursday November 3 in Australia.”
    In three states of Australia.

    I wonder if Nine were showing the full 59 minutes in HD whether they would have been allowed to broadcast it ahead of the UK?

  5. And who could forget that Australia screen the Wallace & Grommit:A matter of loaf or death before the uk causing the creator to question why it was already up on therorrent websites. 😛

  6. Um I’ve been saying this for the last week, and next Sunday we’ll be getting the 3rd ep which won’t air until next Wednesday in the UK. And if Nines is planing to burn off the 7 part series in 4 weeks continues they will air 2 eps a week, meaning our final will be Sunday Nov 20. While they won’t get to see ep 7 until Wednesday Dec 7th.

    As for torrents, I think they will be coming out of the UK as well considering they get a longer version at just under 60 minutes per ep, the first one was just 43 min here. I really hope GEM will air the full version in HD at some point.

    I guess we don’t have an answer as to why Nine is able to air the rest of the series ahead of the UK? Someone get Sir David Attenborough on the phone!

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