Selling Doctor Who

This chapter looks at the sales of Doctor Who broken down into "waves".

Buying and Selling a TV Programme

For a summary of the processes relating to the buying of a TV programme, click HERE.

The THREE WAVES of Doctor Who

In the 1960s and 1970s, but less so into and beyond the 1980s, members of the Commonwealth of Nations operated a "quota" system, by which a percentage of all cinema releases and television programmes sold and purchased had to be products from other Commonwealth countries. The BBC therefore had an obligation under this quota system to sell Doctor Who to other Commonwealth nations.

From as early as mid 1964, the BBC began offering Doctor Who to Commonwealth broadcasters, starting with regular purchasers such as Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong, with other Commonwealth countries in Africa, North America, the Caribbean and Europe soon to follow.

A few years later – from 1967 - they began to exploit the series to non-Commonwealth and non-English speaking territories such as Thailand, the Middle East and other Arabic nations, and Latin American countries.

There were in effect three major "waves" during which the BBC exploited Doctor Who, with each wave spanning a period of around six years. The following tables list the countries in - as close as we can get it - chronological broadcast order.

FIRST WAVE

The first wave of airdates was of William Hartnell stories and Patrick Troughton stories.

1	New Zealand	18 Sep 1964
2	Australia	16 Jan 1965
3	Canada	23 Jan 1965
4	Singapore	7 Apr 1965
5	Gibraltar	8 Apr 1965
6	Malta	24 May 1965
7	Aden	4 Jul 1965
8	Nigeria	3 Aug 1965
9	Rhodesia	26 Sep 1965
10	Zambia	19 Oct 1965
11	Trinidad & Tobago	31 Oct 1965
12	Bermuda	13 Dec 1965
13	Uganda	18 Jan 1966
14	Jamaica	3 Mar 1966
15	Cyprus	12 Mar 1966
16	Barbados	25 Apr 1966
17	Hong Kong	26 Apr 1966
18	Kenya	16 Jun 1966
19	Ghana	11 Jul 1966?
20	Thailand	20 Aug 1966
21	Mauritius	21 Oct 1966
22	Venezuela	26 Feb 1967
23	Sierra Leone	12 Apr 1967
24	Tunisia	13 Apr 1967
25	Mexico	25 Mar 1968
26	Morocco	circa 1968
27	Saudi Arabia	circa 1968
28	Iran	11 Jul 1968?
29	Dominican Republic	circa 1968
30	Chile	5 Jan 1969
31	Jordan	circa 1969
32	Libya	circa 1969
33	Ethiopia	22 Oct 1970

SECOND WAVE

As more and more countries switched to colour, the opportunity arose to sell the series to many more countries than was possible before.

The BBC exploited the Jon Pertwee stories, both in colour and black and white, and the Tom Baker stories, in PAL and NTSC colour to North and Latin America. (Overlapping with this wave was the final sale of William Hartnell stories, sold to Algeria in 1973.

34=	United States	21 Aug 1972
34=	Guam	27 Nov 1972
35	Algeria	31 Dec 1973

Several countries that had screened a brief run of Hartnells in the 1960s later purchased new Pertwee and/or Baker episodes. These are marked #.

Many sales occurred in the same region at the same time: there were several sales in 1977 to Middle Eastern countries, while 1979-1980 saw a much wider distribution in Central America and South America.

And after limited success with conquering Europe in the 1970s, the BBC was able to finally crack the European market.

And by this point, the BBC had sold Doctor Who to nearly 39 countries. Does that number sound familiar? See 110 MILLION VIEWERS.

From this point on, we have not numbered the countries, as there are too many debut airdates that we have not been able to determine. We have placed the countries in likely broadcast order.

.	United Arab Emirates	late 1974/early 75
.	Netherlands	28 Jul 1975
.	Bahrain	circa 1975?
.	Philippines	6 Mar 1976
.	Brunei	8 Aug 1976
#	Canada	18 Sep 1976
.	Lebanon	22 Apr 1977
#	Saudi Arabia	26 Apr 1977
.	Qatar	mid-1977
.	Korea (South)	7 Nov 1977
.	Swaziland	4 Feb 1978
.	Japan	3 Mar 1978
#	Nigeria	8 Jan 1979
#	Rhodesia	13 Jan 1979
#	Malta	20 Apr 1979
#	Mexico	4 May 1979
#	Chile	9 May 1979
.	Denmark	8 Jun 1979
.	Brazil	circa 1979
.	Costa Rica	4 Feb 1980
.	Italy	6 Feb 1980
.	Colombia	13 Feb 1980
.	Ecuador	19 Mar 1980
.	Bangladesh	8 Jul 1980
.	Nicaragua	6 Aug 1980
#	Jordan	7 April 1981?
.	Sri Lanka	30 Apr 1981
.	Honduras	1980 or 81?
#	Venezuela	circa 1981?
.	Guatemala	circa 1981?

• By the end of 1981, the BBC had sold the series to 54 countries. Does that ring familiar? See 110 MILLION VIEWERS.

THIRD WAVE

From 1984, the BBC sold Doctor Who even further afield than before (did the extensive publicity for the 20th anniversary have anything to do with this?)

In 1984 and 1986, there were more sales to Asian countries that ever before, with three near-neighbouring countries picking up the series all around the same time in 1986.

After a 1985 sales showcase in Nassau, several more Caribbean countries were added to the list.

In 1985, the BBC reissued all the available and complete Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee stories to the United States and Canada, with Australia and New Zealand also picking up these back-catalogue packages by the turn of the century.

From 1986, the BBC tempted more countries in Europe, following the October 1985 MIPCOM TV fair in Cannes.

Of note, the vast majority of all these sales in the 1980s were of Tom Baker stories.

"New" countries that previously appeared in WAVE ONE or TWO, are marked with a #.

.	Monaco	9 Nov 1983
#	Netherlands	30 Sep 1985
#	Trinidad & Tobago	11 Dec 1985
#	Barbados	30 Dec 1985
.	Malaysia	6 Feb 1986
.	Bahamas	26 Jun 1986
.	Taiwan	18 Aug 1986
.	Yugoslavia	5 Oct 1986
.	Greece	5 Dec 1986
.	Seychelles	14 Feb 1987
.	Burkina Faso	1987?
.	Spain	22 Feb 1988
.	Turkey	9 June 1988
.	France	19 Feb 1989
.	Germany	22 Nov 1989
.	Poland	early 1990s?
.	Botswana	early 1990s?
.	Sweden	24 Aug 1996

This brings the country total to 70.

(Not included in this list is the Ascension Island, Dominica, Kuwait, Papua New Guinea and Saint Lucia.)

Ratio: Doctor per Country

Not every country saw all seven Doctors, and not every story of each Doctor was seen.

With the exception of Australia and New Zealand, the only two countries to have the first seven 'classic' Doctors in 'chronological order', most countries saw only one or two Doctors. This table illustrates the nineteen (known) combinations of Doctor/s per country for the period 1964 to 1997, exclusive of back-catalogue sales of past Doctors:

(For countries marked ?, there is some uncertainty as to where they fit in the chart)

1st Dr	2nd Dr	3rd Dr	4th Dr	5th Dr	6th Dr	7th Dr	No.	Countries
X							15	Aden, Algeria, Bermuda, Cyprus, Dominican Republic?, Ethiopia, Ghana, Iran, Kenya, Jamaica, Libya, Mauritius, Morocco, Thailand, Tunisia
X	X						2	Uganda, Zambia
X	X	X					1	Singapore
X	X	X	X				1	Hong Kong
X	X	X	X	X			1	Gibraltar
X	X	X	X	X	X	X	2	Australia, New Zealand
X	X		X				1	Nigeria
X		X					1	Sierra Leone
X		X	X				2	Malta, Saudi Arabia
X		X	X	X	X	X	1	Canada
X			X				7	Barbados (with Saint Lucia), Chile, Jordan, Mexico, Rhodesia, Trinidad & Tobago, Venezuela
		X					6	Ascension Island?, Bangladesh, Guam?, Lebanon, Philippines, Qatar?
		X	X				3	Brunei, Sri Lanka, Sweden
		X	X	X			1	Swaziland
		X	X	X	X	X	2	United Arab Emirates, United States
		X	X			X	1	Japan
			X				23	Bahamas, Bahrain?, Brazil, Colombia?, Costa Rica, Denmark, Dominica?, Ecuador, France, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Korea (South), Kuwait?, Malaysia, Monaco, Nicaragua, Poland, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, Yugoslavia
			X	X			2	Netherlands, Seychelles
				X	X	X	1	Germany
34	8	22	45	10	6	7	72

• Not included in this table is Papua New Guinea.

In short, 15 countries saw only William Hartnell, 6 had just Jon Pertwee, and for 23, Tom Baker was the only Doctor.

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