Doctor Who: Disney+ Viewers Getting 60th Anniv Specials Before BBC?

Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: bbc, chris chibnall, disney, doctor who, jodie whittaker, matt smith, steven moffat, streaming

Set for November 25th, will a lot of Disney+ viewers get the Doctor Who 60th Anniversary special “The Star Beast” before BBC viewers do?

We all know by now that the first Doctor Who 60th Anniversary special, “The Star Beast,” will premiere on Saturday, November 25th, on BBC One in the UK and globally on Disney+. However, some fans have discovered a little wrinkle: different time zones. This means half the world might have the opportunity to see it hours before the UK does.

Here’s how it goes: Doctor Who will return to its traditional British timeslot of Saturday evenings at 6.30 pm in the United Kingdom. Before the streaming era took off, this means it would end up on BBC iPlayer afterward. Australian television would broadcast it the next day per licensing agreements. BBC America, which co-financed the series from Series Five (Matt Smith and Steven Moffat‘s first season) to Series Thirteen (Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall‘s final season), would live-broadcast the show on the same day but in the evening in the US, hours after the UK premiere before going to streaming. Disney+ co-financing and licensing the global streaming rights has changed all that. Now Doctor Who is slated to premiere globally on the same day on Disney+ outside of the UK and Ireland (except for Australia, for some reason, where it will stream the next day). But “the same day” isn’t that simple for different parts of the world.

Let’s start with Japan, which is nine hours ahead of the United Kingdom, as the unofficial Doctor Who Production News account discovered: “I looked up the time zones. If ‘The Star Beast’ is really going to be available on Disney+ in Japan on November 25, they will be able to stream it long before it airs on BBC One.”

Another account checked and found that “All disney+ accounts in (south)east asia say they’re airing on Nov 25. Indonesia, korea, malaysia, singapore, thailand. The only exception being australia which is airing on nov 26.”

Streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ tend to premiere shows and movies at midnight. Does this mean the Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials will air at midnight in each country that has Disney+? This means that Asia will get to see the first special first. Midnight in Asia comes around ten hours ahead of the UK. That means the UK and the US are still a day behind. And streamer premiere shows and movies at midnight on the West Coast, which is eight hours behind the UK.

Does this mean Asia will get to see Doctor Who nearly a day before the UK does, and the Americas will get to stream it on Disney+ about ten hours before the UK does? Or will the BBC make sure the UK gets to watch it on BBC One broadcast TV before the rest of the world does? You know what fans are like on the internet with this kind of thing. We could be in for some chaos heading into November 24th and 25th.

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