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Doctor Who Tops Ratings On Britbox This Christmas.

Doctor Who Tops Ratings On Britbox This Christmas.

LONDON, 27th December 2019: BritBox, the streaming service where the best of British creativity comes together, today announced the most streamed content over the Christmas period.

Tracking subscriber habits from Christmas Eve through to Boxing Day, it quickly became apparent that the most streamed series was Doctor Who Classic.

In the first 24 hours of its availability on the service, fans flocked to stream the 600+ episode collection, outstripping the popularity of other series by almost 20:1.

Social media quickly became awash with appreciation for the offering; the first time Doctor Who Classic has been available to stream in the UK.

‘Damn it, thanks to BritBox_UK and its app permitting me to watch classic #DoctorWho on my phone in bed, I may never sleep again’ said one fan.

Reemah Sakaan, group launch director for ITV SVOD commented:

‘We are so glad that subscribers are enjoying our fantastic Doctor Who Classic collection; the first of its kind available to stream in the UK. There has never been a better reason to miss a few nights’ sleep!

Unwrap Classic Doctor Who on Britbox from Boxing Day

Unwrap Classic Doctor Who on Britbox from Boxing Day

Doctor Who on Britbox

Doctor Who fans across the land – get ready to clear your schedules as the biggest Doctor Who Classic collection ever streamed in the UK launches on BritBox from Boxing Day.

From 26th December, 627 pieces of Doctor Who Classic content will be available on the service. This tally is comprised of a mix of episodes, spin-offs, documentaries, telesnaps and more and includes many rarely-seen treasures. Subscribers will be able to access this content via web, mobile, tablet, connected TVs and Chromecast.

129 complete stories, which totals 558 episodes spanning the first eight Doctors from William Hartnell to Paul McGann, form the backbone of the collection.

The collection also includes four complete stories; The Tenth PlanetThe MoonbaseThe Ice Warriors and The Invasion, which feature a combination of original content and animation and total 22 episodes. An unaired story entitled Shada which was originally presented as six episodes (but has been uploaded as a 130 minute special), brings this total to 28.

A further two complete, solely animated stories – The Power of the Daleks and The Macra Terror (presented in HD) – add 10 episodes.

Five orphaned episodes – The Crusade (2 parts), Galaxy 4The Space Pirates and The Celestial Toymaker – bring the total up to 600. Doctor Who: The MovieAn Unearthly Child: The Pilot Episode and An Adventure in Space in Time will also be available on the service, in addition to The Underwater MenaceThe Wheel in Space and The Web of Fear which have been completed via telesnaps. Spin-off drama K-9 and Company, and documentaries More Than 30 Years In The TARDIS and Doctor Who: Doctors Revisited complete the collection.

If watched back-to-back without stopping to eat, drink or sleep it would take a committed viewer around 272 hours or over 11 days to watch everything… assuming no access to a TARDIS!

BritBox will also be curating special Doctor Who Classic collections, including ‘New to Who’, featuring one key episode from each of the first seven Doctors as an introduction to the uninitiated. Further collections will be devoted to the most memorable monsters, with Cybermen, Daleks, The Master and Sontarans each getting the limelight. Regeneration episodes have also been collated.

Boxing Day also marks the start of a longer-term collaboration with the BBC, with a shared vision of making BritBox the ultimate home of Doctor Who Classic content in 2020 and beyond, ensuring the widest collection of content available is presented in the best possible format and quality.

Reemah Sakaan, Group Director ITV SVOD, commented:

“BritBox becoming the first complete digital home of Doctor Who Classic creates a special opportunity for fans and streamers across the UK. We are looking forward to expanding the collection even further by working with the show creators to lovingly restore lost and previously unavailable episodes in the months to come and offering a truly exclusive experience.”

Sally de St Croix, Franchise Director for Doctor Who at BBC Studios added:

“It’s thrilling to partner with BritBox and see all this amazing Doctor Who Classic content congregate in one place where subscribers can stream to their hearts’ content – some experiencing the show for the first time whilst others will simply be enjoying it all over again.”

Get ready to tune in! Classic Doctor Who will launch on BritBox from Boxing Day this year.


Full Doctor Who Classic content list

Story Episodes Type of Story
An Unearthly Child 4 Complete story
The Daleks 7 Complete story
The Edge Of Destruction 2 Complete story
The Keys Of Marinus 6 Complete story
The Aztecs 4 Complete story
The Sensorites 6 Complete story
Planet Of Giants 3 Complete story
The Dalek Invasion Of Earth 6 Complete story
The Rescue 2 Complete story
The Romans 4 Complete story
The Web Planet 6 Complete story
The Crusade 2 Orphaned episodes
The Space Museum 4 Complete story
The Chase 6 Complete story
The Time Meddler 4 Complete story
Galaxy 4 1 Orphaned episode
The Ark 4 Complete story
The Celestial Toymaker 1 Orphaned episode
The Gunfighters 4 Complete story
The War Machines 4 Complete story
The Tenth Planet 4 Complete story with animation
The Power Of The Daleks 6 Complete animation
The Underwater Menace 4 Complete story with telesnaps
The Moonbase 4 Complete story with animation
The Macra Terror 4 Complete animation
The Tomb Of The Cybermen 4 Complete story
The Ice Warriors 6 Complete animation
The Enemy Of The World 6 Complete story
The Web Of Fear 6 Complete story with telesnaps
The Wheel In Space 6 Complete story with telesnaps
The Dominators 5 Complete story
The Mind Robber 5 Complete story
The Invasion 8 Complete story with animation
The Krotons 4 Complete story
The Seeds Of Death 6 Complete story
The Space Pirates 1 Orphaned episode
The War Games 10 Complete story
Spearhead From Space 4 Complete story
Doctor Who And The Silurians 7 Complete story
The Ambassadors Of Death 7 Complete story
Inferno 7 Complete story
Terror Of The Autons 4 Complete story
The Mind Of Evil 6 Complete story
The Claws Of Axos 4 Complete story
Colony In Space 6 Complete story
The Daemons 5 Complete story
Day Of The Daleks 4 Complete story
The Curse Of Peladon 4 Complete story
The Sea Devils 6 Complete story
The Mutants 6 Complete story
The Time Monster 6 Complete story
The Three Doctors 4 Complete story
Carnival Of Monsters 4 Complete story
Frontier In Space 6 Complete story
Planet Of The Daleks 6 Complete story
The Green Death 6 Complete story
The Time Warrior 4 Complete story
Invasion Of The Dinosaurs 6 Complete story
Death To The Daleks 4 Complete story
The Monster Of Peladon 6 Complete story
Planet Of The Spiders 6 Complete story
Robot 4 Complete story
The Ark In Space 4 Complete story
The Sontaran Experiment 2 Complete story
Genesis Of The Daleks 6 Complete story
Revenge Of The Cybermen 4 Complete story
Terror Of The Zygons 4 Complete story
Planet Of Evil 4 Complete story
Pyramids Of Mars 4 Complete story
The Android Invasion 4 Complete story
The Brain Of Morbius 4 Complete story
The Seeds Of Doom 6 Complete story
The Masque Of Mandragora 4 Complete story
The Hand Of Fear 4 Complete story
The Deadly Assassin 4 Complete story
The Face Of Evil 4 Complete story
The Robots Of Death 4 Complete story
The Talons Of Weng-Chiang 6 Complete story
Horror Of Fang Rock 4 Complete story
The Invisible Enemy 4 Complete story
Image Of The Fendahl 4 Complete story
The Sun Makers 4 Complete story
Underworld 4 Complete story
The Invasion Of Time 6 Complete story
The Ribos Operation 4 Complete story
The Pirate Planet 4 Complete story
The Stones Of Blood 4 Complete story
The Androids Of Tara 4 Complete story
The Power Of Kroll 4 Complete story
The Armageddon Factor 6 Complete story
Destiny Of The Daleks 4 Complete story
City Of Death 4 Complete story
The Creature From The Pit 4 Complete story
Nightmare Of Eden 4 Complete story
The Horns Of Nimon 4 Complete story
Shada 6 Complete story with animation
The Leisure Hive 4 Complete story
Meglos 4 Complete story
Full Circle 4 Complete story
State Of Decay 4 Complete story
Warriors’ Gate 4 Complete story
The Keeper Of Traken 4 Complete story
Logopolis 4 Complete story
Castrovalva 4 Complete story
Four To Doomsday 4 Complete story
Kinda 4 Complete story
The Visitation 4 Complete story
Black Orchid 2 Complete story
Earthshock 4 Complete story
Time-Flight 4 Complete story
Arc Of Infinity 4 Complete story
Snakedance 4 Complete story
Mawdryn Undead 4 Complete story
Terminus 4 Complete story
Enlightenment 4 Complete story
The King’s Demons 2 Complete story
The Five Doctors 1 Complete story
Warriors Of The Deep 4 Complete story
The Awakening 2 Complete story
Frontios 4 Complete story
Resurrection Of The Daleks 2 Complete story
Planet Of Fire 4 Complete story
The Caves Of Androzani 4 Complete story
The Twin Dilemma 4 Complete story
Attack Of The Cybermen 2 Complete story
Vengeance On Varos 2 Complete story
The Mark Of The Rani 2 Complete story
The Two Doctors 3 Complete story
Timelash 2 Complete story
Revelation Of The Daleks 2 Complete story
The Trial Of A Time Lord 14 Complete story
Time And The Rani 4 Complete story
Paradise Towers 4 Complete story
Delta And The Bannermen 3 Complete story
Dragonfire 3 Complete story
Remembrance Of The Daleks 4 Complete story
The Happiness Patrol 3 Complete story
Silver Nemesis 3 Complete story
The Greatest Show In The Galaxy 4 Complete story
Battlefield 4 Complete story
Ghost Light 3 Complete story
The Curse Of Fenric 4 Complete story
Survival 3 Complete story
Doctor Who: The Movie 1 Complete story
An Adventure In Space And Time 1 Special
An Unearthly Child (Pilot) 1 Special
The Doctors Revisited 7 Special
K9 And Company 1 Special
More Than 30 Years In The TARDIS 1 Special
Britbox to showcase Classic Doctor Who This Christmas!

Britbox to showcase Classic Doctor Who This Christmas!

Image result for britbox logo

BritBox, a streaming service offering shows from ITV, the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5, has launched in the UK.

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Downton Abbey, Gavin & Stacey, Wolf Hall, Love Island and Broadchurch are among the shows available.

C4 and C5 have come on board after ITV and the BBC announced BritBox as a way to get into the paid streaming market.

The service will cost £5.99 per month and will mostly feature classic series, but will also include new shows, beginning with Lambs of God.

The drama stars The Handmaid’s Tale’s Ann Dowd, The End of the F****** World’s Jessica Barden and Essie Davis from The White Princess as nuns living on a remote island. It was originally shown on Australian TV in July.

While the service would be a second or third subscription for many viewers, it will be able to rival the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Apple TV+, she said.

“It’s got the widest range of UK box sets of any service,” she said. “Ostensibly the other streamers are US-focused so they make dramas for the US market, whereas BritBox is the faces, people and places that you know.”

Some archive programmes that have been on services like Netflix will now move to BritBox, she said.

“For some time we’ve been bringing our shows back home and now that we’ve got a destination in BritBox, that’s something we’ll be doing more actively. We’ll still be working in partnership with Netflix and Amazon and all of the other streamers.”

How does the price compare with other services?

  • BritBox – £5.99 per month for HD and multi-screen viewing
  • Netflix – £5.99 for basic package rising to £8.99 for a standard plan, including HD on two screens
  • Amazon Prime – £5.99 on up to three screens simultaneously
  • Now TV – £8.99 for entertainment pass, with optional extras – Cinema Pass (£11.99), Sports (£33.99), Kids (£3.99)
  • YouTube Premium – £11.99

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Dramas on the service at launch include Cracker, Prime Suspect, Brideshead Revisited and Ashes to Ashes; while comedies include Absolutely Fabulous, Extras, Blackadder and Fawlty Towers.

More than 600 classic episodes of Doctor Who – broadcast between 1963 and 1989 – will be available to stream for the first time by Christmas.

Shows and movies from Channel 4 and Film4’s back catalogue will be available in 2020, and original shows from Comedy Central UK will also feature.

Sakaan said having a big catalogue of classic shows “shouldn’t be underestimated” by those assessing BritBox’s chances of success.

“The new battleground, quite often in streaming, are shows like Friends, which are 20 years old and are the top performers,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Some of the biggest hits of recent years, such as Killing Eve, Peaky Blinders and Bodyguard, will not be on it at first.

This is either because existing deals are in place with other streaming services, or because they are still on the broadcasters’ own catch-up platforms.

Shows are not expected to appear on BritBox until they have dropped off the BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub and All 4, which do not require paid subscriptions. The BBC was recently given permission to keep programmes on iPlayer for one year.

TV critic Scott Bryan said the idea of rival channels teaming up to try to compete with the likes of Netflix was “quite big news”.

“The issue is whether people are willing to pay towards them,” he continued. “And it will be interesting to see which shows end up being on which service.

“Some shows might be a co-production between the BBC and Netflix for example, and that might end up on Netflix.

“So for many of us there’s going to be a lot of confusion trying to work out which show is going to be on which platform.”

On social media, some users questioned why they were being asked to shell out to watch programmes they had effectively already paid for.

Responding to that point in July, BBC director general Lord Hall compared BritBox with releasing a programme on DVD.

“That was the BBC saying, there’s a secondary market – you pay for content after we’ve shown it,” he said. “This is just a modern-day version of that, and an even better version of that, because it used to be infuriating when you’d seen a programme on the BBC and you couldn’t get hold of the DVD.”

Any money the corporation makes will be put back in to programme-making, he said. “I think this is wins all round for the licence fee payers.”

BritBox launched in the US two years ago and has a different catalogue of content, with 650,000 subscribers.