Selling Doctor Who
SELLING DW
From as early as mid 1964, the BBC began offering Doctor Who to foreign broadcasters, starting with regular purchasers such as Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong, soon followed by other Commonwealth countries in Africa, North America, the Caribbean and Europe.
A few years later, 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 South America|Latin American countries.
There were in effect four waves during which the BBC exploited Doctor Who, with each wave spanning a period of around six years.
WAVE ONE
The first wave was of just William Hartnell stories, which were seen in 34 countries:
| 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 |
WAVE TWO This second wave included Hartnells, Patrick Troughton stories, Jon Pertwee stories and Tom Baker stories.
It was during this second wave that several countries who had seen only the William Hartnell stories bought the series again, in colour, starting with either Pertwee and/or Tom Baker. These are marked #.
| 34 | United States | 21 Aug 1972 |
| 35 | Algeria | 31 Dec 1973 |
| 36 | Dubai | circa 1975 |
| 37 | Netherlands | 28 Jul 1975 |
| 38 | Bahrain | circa 1975 |
| 39 | Philippines | 6 Mar 1976 |
| 40 | Brunei | 8 Aug 1976 |
| # | Canada | 18 Sep 1976 |
| 41 | Abu Dhabi | circa 1977 |
| 42 | Qatar | circa 1977 |
| 43 | Lebanon | 22 Apr 1977 |
| # | Saudi Arabia | 26 Apr 1977 |
| 44 | Kuwait | circa 1977 |
| 45 | Korea (South) | circa 1978 |
| 46 | Turkey | circa 1978 |
| 47 | Swaziland | 11 Feb 1978 |
| 48 | Japan | 3 Mar 1978 |
| 49 | Ecuador | circa 1978 |
| 50 | Brazil | circa 1979 |
| 51 | Guatemala | circa 1979 |
| # | Malta | 20 Apr 1979 |
| # | Mexico | 4 May 1979 |
| # | Chile | 9 May 1979 |
| # | Venezuela | circa 1979 |
| 52 | Denmark | 8 Jun 1979 |
| 53 | Costa Rica | 4 Feb 1980 |
| 54 | Italy | 6 Feb 1980 |
| 55 | Bangladesh | 1 Jul 1980 |
| 56 | Nicaragua | 6 Aug 1980 |
| # | [[Rhodesia | 2 Oct 1980 |
| # | Jordan | 7 Apr 1981 |
WAVE THREE The third wave included the remaining Doctors, plus a handful of Pertwees, but mainly Tom Baker's first season.
| 57 | Sri Lanka | 4 Apr 1984 |
| # | Netherlands | 30 Sep 1985 |
| # | Trinidad & Tobago | 11 Dec 1985 |
| # | Barbados | 30 Dec 1985 |
| 58 | Malaysia | 6 Feb 1986 |
| 59 | Dominica | by Feb 1987 |
| 60 | Greece | by Feb 1987 |
| 61 | Honduras | by Feb 1987 |
| 62 | Taiwan | by Feb 1987 |
| 63 | Yugoslavia | by Feb 1987 |
| 64 | Seychelles | 14 Feb 1987 |
| 65 | France | 19 Feb 1989 |
| 66 | Spain | circa 1989 |
| 67 | Germany | 22 Nov 1989 |
| 68 | Poland | circa 1990 |
| 69 | Sweden | circa 1997 |
Refer to each of the Doctor profile pages for further information on how Doctor Who was sold, what stories and to which countries:
- William Hartnell stories
- Patrick Troughton stories
- Jon Pertwee stories
- Tom Baker stories
- Peter Davison stories
- Colin Baker stories
- Sylvester McCoy stories
Doctor to Country ratios
Not every country saw all seven Doctors, and not every story of each Doctor was seen. Some countries saw just one Doctor, others just two.
With the exception of Australia and New Zealand, the only two countries to purchase and screen Doctor Who in chronological order, most countries saw only one or two Doctors. This table illustrates the nineteen known combinations of Doctor/s per country:
| 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, Chile, Jordan, Mexico, Rhodesia, Trinidad & Tobago, Venezuela | |||||
| X | 8 | Abu Dhabi, Bangladesh, Korea (South)?, Kuwait?, Lebanon, Philippines, Qatar, Turkey? | ||||||
| X | X | 3 | Brunei, Dubai, Sri Lanka | |||||
| X | X | X | 1 | Swaziland | ||||
| X | X | X | X | X | 1 | United States | ||
| X | X | X | 1 | Japan | ||||
| X | 16 | Bahrain, Brazil, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Spain, Sweden | ||||||
| X | X | 2 | Netherlands, Seychelles | |||||
| X | X | X | 1 | Germany | ||||
| 34 | 8 | 24 | 41 | 9 | 5 | 6 | 1 |
