In a followup to yesterday's report on the status of Doctor Who in Germany, broadcaster FOX have received an update from BBC Worldwide on how the series will be presented in the country, at least for the present:


In previous years, FOX has presented Doctor Who fully dubbed into German; however, the leak of several episodes online last month via a BBC Worldwide server in Miami has led to more stringent controls being put into place over how the series is distributed internationally.

FOX in Germany have published a statement from BBC Worldwide over the channel being unable to broadcast a German-dubbed version of Deep Breath this coming Saturday:


Deep Breath airs on FOX this Saturday at 9:00pm.

Back in November, Doctor Who was awarded the Guinness World record for the largest ever simulcast for a television episode, officially reported as 94 countries. Though a number of those fall within the reach of BBC Worldwide's Entertainment and HD channels, there are still a wide variety of television channels around the world that broadcast the show!

Originally launched in 1998 by Benjamin Francis Elliott, This Week in Doctor Who continues to report on where Doctor Who and its related programmes are shown; however, whilst we are aware of many international broadcasts, there are certainly other non-English channels that we have yet to catalogue. Also, even though we do cover a number of worldwide channels through their online listings, these don't always provide much detail on which episodes are actually being shown (or in some cases are misleading).

We would like to hear from any of our international readers (i.e. outside of the United Kingdom) who are able to assist in reporting on what is actually being broadcast in their countries, whether these include advertising, are cut, subtitled, dubbed, etc., and also local coverage of the show in the media which isn't always available online. In addition, we would like to know about general Doctor Who news within those countries, and welcome anyone who might wish to write articles for Doctor Who News itself.

If you are interested in contributing to This Week in Doctor Who and Doctor Who News then please contact us via our applications address, letting us know which country you are from and what's happening Doctor Who-wise locally.

Thanks for any help you can provide.
The Doctor Who News Team

We would also like to increase our pool of reviewers for Doctor Who (and other series) related publications, audio, and other merchandise; if you might be interested in writing reviews then please let us know at the above email address.

FOX Germany have announced their intention to broadcast the next series of Doctor Who at the same time as or as near as possible to its transmission in the United Kingdom - making it the first station in the world to present a series alongside its traditional "home"!

The episodes, which will be available to watch in both a German-dubbed version or the original English soundtrack, will be aired as close to the actual transmission on BBC One as is practical - the UK schedules can vary from week to week depending upon other programming and events, whereas German schedules are less 'fluid' - as the press release cites, should the series air at 8:00pm in the UK then it would air at 9:00pm in Germany.

Marco de Ruiter, Managing Director for FOX, said:

The actual premiere date and time in August has yet to be confirmed.


Back in November, the channel narrowly missed being part of the global simulcast of The Day of the Doctor, broadcasting the episode some ten minutes later at 9:00pm local time. Similarly, The Time of the Doctor was broadcast about an hour later in Germany, though FOX were the first to show the festive episode after the UK.

Doctor Who is a daily fixture on FOX, with this week seeing the run reach Series 4.

Back in July BBC Worldwide announced its intention to take the broadcast of the 50th Anniversary special, The Day of The Doctor, worldwide. Tonight, it was announced that so far some 75 countries have signed up to make the broadcast a global phenomenon, which as well as the USA (BBC America), Canada (SPACE) and Australia (ABC), also includes places in Europe that currently show the series, such as Germany (FOX) and Finland (YLE), and worldwide through the BBC Entertainment channel. Other networks are expected to be announced in due course.

In addition, over 200 cinemas around the United Kingdom are set to simulcast the episode, many of which will broadcast the adventure in 3D - which will also be available for compatible television sets through the BBC's HD Red Button service.

Tim Davie, chief executive of BBC Worldwide, said:

Brendan Dahill, Controller ABC1 said:

Writer and executive producer Steven Moffat said:



Though the premiere date of 23rd November is embedded in every Doctor Who fan's mind, the actual time of broadcast has yet to be confirmed; however, ABC have announced that their prime-time repeat broadcast of The Day of The Doctor will be on the Sunday at 7:30pm AEDT. Meanwhile, PRIME in New Zealand have reported that they will show the episode within 24 hours of its broadcast in the UK (the episode's usual PG censor rating means it unfortunately cannot be shown on the terrestrial channel in the early morning).

New Zealand's Prime television channel has posted a statement on Facebook regarding the 50th Anniversary Special.
BBC Worldwide issued a statement last week in which they announced an intention to simultaneously broadcast the Anniversary Special internationally.

What this means for New Zealand viewers is that if - hypothetically - the Special screens in the UK on Saturday 23rd November at 7pm, the episode would be seen on Prime on Sunday 24th November at 8am.

It remains unclear at this stage whether the episode will in fact screen at the same time in New Zealand. Prime has addressed this in a follow-up statement:
In New Zealand, new series episodes of Doctor Who invariably receive a PGR (Parental Guidance Recommended) rating, which makes them unsuitable for an early morning timeslot on Prime.

BBC Worldwide have released a demonstration of how Doctor Who is broadcast in other languages from around the world as part of the promotion of the show at this year's BBC Worldwide Showcase, currently taking place in Liverpool.

The video shows a clip from The Wedding of River Song in English, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German and Italian.


As recently reported, episodes of the show will be available to watch in the Middle East via Al Jazeera's JCC channel, and in Poland, South Africa, Burma and Indonesia via BBC Entertainment.

Al Jazeera has bought Series 5 to 7 of Doctor Who, it was announced today.

The episodes were snapped up at the BBC Worldwide Showcase 2013 event and will be shown on the satellite TV broadcaster's pan-Arabic children's channel JCC, which launched in 2005 and is based in Qatar.

The showcase is a four-day international TV market being held at ACC Liverpool. It started yesterday and is welcoming some 700 TV buyers from around the globe.

Paola Tonella, BBC Worldwide's sales and distribution territory manager for the Middle East and Africa, said: Among the star names at yesterday's gala opening were Eve Myles and Mark Williams.

The showcase will also be hosting special events to both celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who and to spotlight the natural-history documentary series Africa.

Steve Macallister, the president and managing director of sales and distribution at BBC Worldwide, said:

Poland and South Africa will get the second part of Series 7 the day after each of the eight episodes is shown in the UK, it was announced today by BBC Worldwide.

The episodes will air on BBC Entertainment, starting on Sunday 31st March at 6pm in Poland and 7pm in South Africa.


Jon Farrar, the vice-president of programming for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at BBC Worldwide Channels, said: BBC America and SPACE in Canada will be launching the second part of Series 7 on Saturday 30th March in line with the UK.

The BBC have announced that it is to launch its BBC Entertainment channel in Burma from next year. The pay-TV channel will launch from 1st January 2013 alongside BBC World News and CBeebies, which will join the BBC World Service broadcast through the region's Forever Group.

BBC Entertainment showcases the best comedy, drama and light entertainment from the BBC and other UK production houses; this of course includes Doctor Who - so will mark the first time the series has been broadcast in the country!

Mark Whitehead, Senior Vice President and General Manager of BBC Worldwide Channels Asia, said:

The BBC have also announced another first for Doctor Who, as BBC Entertainment is also introduced to Indonesia, to be broadcast via max3 from Biznet Networks. Mark Whitehead commented:

Doctor Who on BBC Entertainment:

At the time of writing the channel is currently showing Series 6 in Asia, and tonight will show last year's festive adventure The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe.