Germany Announces Series 8 Simulcast – But Who Will Follow?

James Lomond is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Doctor Who is making the history books again – FOX Germany has announced that it will as-good-as simulcast Series 8 of the show this Summer…

The channel is claiming this is a world first and I’m inclined to believe them. Following the Guinness Book of Records success with the world’s biggest TV drama simulcast, this will apparently be the first time that a TV series has been broadcast overseas at (or very near) the same time as the world premier.

FOX Germany, linked to the National Geographic Channel, broadcasts largely US and British TV dramas to Germany, Austria and Switzerland and has premiered shows such as The Sopranos, Shameless and Sex in the City. They broadcast without ad-breaks in both German and English, and I’m put in mind of this wee snippet from Series 3′s denouement…

On first hearing this announcement my initial thought was “so what?” But this might actually be a big deal. As we know, shows are usually bought and sold some time after they’ve premiered in their originating country and often aren’t made available to overseas audiences for some time later. There’s both the demand to see something NOW once fans know it’s out there, and the problem of details (or whole episodes!) leaking over the internet once they’ve been released.

So this looks like a response to customer preference and no doubt has a lot to do with the on-demand consumer culture both online and with digital broadcasting. But might there be something else going on also? There’s something very special about knowing a LOT of other people are settling down to watch a TV show at the same time as you. That slightly abstract feeling of community has been lost somewhat with the expansion of TV programming (we used to have only four channels, younger Kasterborites – and I’m told there were even fewer before that). With digital recording to catch-up and iPlayer-style features, gone are the days that EVERYONE would have seen the same TV the night before. But there is arguably a new feeling of global community from online social media.

Could this simulcast be a response to and new sense of global community too? Fans in the UK and fans in Germany will be settling down with their tea/cocoa/bier and sonic screwdrivers to enjoy the Twelfth Doctor’s adventures together. Might we see more international simulcasting in the future? Could Doctor Who be a pioneering force for cross-cultural sharing and international diplomacy? (OK: I’m kidding with the last one. Mostly).

What do you think of this news? And can any Kasterborites out there with German links feed back on how fans’ reactions over there? Have spoilers been a problem for the show? Tell us your thoughts below…

(Via Doctor Who News.)

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