ABC Working To Put New Doctor Who Season On iView First


The ABC continues to be a beacon of common sense when it comes to making top-shelf programming available quickly to those who watch it online. The new season of Doctor Who is on the way, and the ABC is working hard to fast-track it onto its iView catch-up platform ahead of the local TV broadcast in Australia.

The ABC has pledged to fast-track the terrestrial broadcast of Doctor Who season eight onto ABC1 within 24 hours of its premiere in the UK.

Traditionally, that would mean that the episode would be on the iView catch-up platform after it debuted on free-to-air television. The ABC has said that it’s working hard to get Doctor Who‘s new episodes up onto iView before they air on terrestrial airwaves in Australia. There’s no firm word on whether Auntie will pull it off yet, so we’ll keep you posted.

The ABC has actually tried this before. The previous season of Doctor Who had been broken up into two parts.

For the first half of the season, the ABC threw the latest episode onto iView within an hour of their premiere in the UK. It backflipped on that decision in the second half of the season, much to the disappointment of our writers and Whovians everywhere.

ABC recently updated the iView platform, meaning that those streaming the new season of Who will get a significantly better experience than they did watching the last fast-tracked season.

Unfortunately, the update still means little in terms of stream quality. Even if the ABC secures a deal to run Doctor Who early on iView again, it will still be beamed into your face at 240p: a disappointing resolution for those with 720p, 1080p and higher displays.