#bbc worldwide

[smegascribbles]

CBBC & CBeebies Tribute

The shows

[wtfjd95]

Your HDM Daemom

What would you want your Daemon's final form to take? I'm torn between a Snow Leopard, like James McAvoy or a wolf to fit my social aesthetic.

[isagrimorie]

I’ve been thinking about the drop off in viewing numbers during Peter Capaldi’s run in Doctor Who, I think its an unfair assessment to lay it all down to Twelve being an unpopular Doctor, especially when a lot of shows are getting the same drop-off in viewing figures.  

Five Who Fans posted a fantastic video on the new Doctor Who logo, which briefly touched on this: 

“Red Bee Media had a 10 year exclusivity deal with the BBC which meant they handled the branding and advertising of BBC programs including Doctor Who.

[snip]

However in 2017 the BBC moved not to renew their contract with Red Bee, instead the BBC would internally create trailers for their shows in-house while branding was down to producer choice.  Besides from Mission Dalek series 9 was the first series of Doctor Who not to enlist the help of Red Bee. I’d argue the advertising campaign for that series were all produced in-house with a little bit of help from BBC Worldwide and BBC America that’s why Doctor Who kind of disappears from public consciousness and it’s the same with series 10.

They did some cool stuff but I think it was done off their own back, promoting themselves which is a hard thing to do, it doesn’t seem like there’s an agency involved/”

I think that sums the whole thing succinctly - btw, I don’t agree with the video’s out of place disparagement of the Twelfth Doctor era, although I do admit that in series 8 I was very ambivalent with Twelve but now he’s one of my favorite Doctors.

(TBH I’m riffing off from the above video and just adding commentary.)

As the video points out one of the big factors to the drop-off is the way Doctor Who suddenly, and seemingly overnight seem to disappear from public consciousness. 

And it was all down to BBC deciding to end its contract with it’s advertising agency (Red Bee) and decided producing all promo materials in-house: 

The BBC will bring in-house the "core creative and operations services", or clip-based trails, that Red Bee provides, while other services will be pitched to the commercial production company community.

People disdain advertising and marketing agencies but they do work and as fans we often take their work for granted. Ad agencies do more than create pretty trailers but they also help the channel and the show to produce and release their promotional materials strategically. 

The BBC’s decision to create promo/marketing collaterals in-house shifted the workload to the showrunner and their production team, which on top of producing the actual show is a lot. 

I don’t have enough material on hand, but I can guess that in between series 8 and 9 the promotional materials were released sporadically, and they relied more on the cast promoting the show worldwide, which isn’t rsustainable and at most would give the show a few pages. 

The two year hiatus didn’t do the show any favors, while it might give the cast and crew a much needed rest but in those two years there was also complete radio silence. The BBC has a lot of programs and with Doctor Who on hiatus the show slowly left public consciousness.  

There was also another problem, and one Doctor Who has no control over--BBC Worldwide discovered they had a branding problem, to anyone outside of the UK BBC is synonymous to a cable news channel. 

That’s when the BBC decided to go for a rebrand and hired a small agency called Little Hawk to help with the rebrand. Little Hawk went all in, they didn’t just retouch the logo but also according to their case study:

rethink(ing) BBC Worldwide’s approach to sales events and corporate branding, as part of the team we streamlined the BBC’s commercial presence in the UK with unified consumer branding. And we took the first steps to raise global attribution with a new, HBO-style sting to precede all BBC programming, regardless of broadcaster or platform.

Little Hawk unified BBC under one banner and made sure it rolled out to other BBC properties, which is a familiar tactic for Doctor Who fans.

BBC and Doctor Who rolled out the logo into all Doctor Who merchandise from Classic Who, Big Finish Audios, novels, and New Who.

Now that there’s a new agency working with BBC’s in-house agency the burden of promoting the show doesn’t fall solely on Chris Chibnall’s shoulders. As a showrunner he can focus more of his attention on the show. 

I think this is why this time around keeping series 11 top of mind is going smoothly despite how we never receive any news on Series 11 (good job keeping the secrets, Chibnall!). The new logo across Doctor Who merchandise ensures that both casual and die hard fans won’t forget about the show until its return. 

Also since Chibnall worked as showrunner on both Britain and UK, Chibnall could have observed first hard the Hollywood marketing/publicity machine. I think Chibnall decided to completely lean into using all the resources BBC to promote series 11. 

TLDR: BBC’s decision to drop an outside agency rely completely on their in house creative agency together with the two year hiatus really hurt Peter Capaldi’s tenure as the Twelfth Doctor.

BBC hiring a new agency is a big step in the right direction. 

/edited

[pepaldi]

(x)

[doctorwho247]

Doctor Who set to air until at least Series 15

BBC Worldwide have announced that Doctor Who will be made available in China, and the show will air until at least Series 15.

Doctor Who is set to air until at least Series 15, with the show also being made available in China.

[doctornolonger]

Word in the grapevine has it that BBC WorldWide execs want extra Doctor Who spin-off material to keep the brand “alive” when the main show is off-air. They see Class as a failure of promotion and placement, so it won’t be iPlayer-centric or based around a location rather than a character. Possibly unrelated, but Moffat has the rights to the Paternoster Gang, and he has some sort of plan for them (hence Big Finish’s inability to use them in any significant role despite the obvious potential). Preliminary costings have been done for 6, 8, or 10 blocks for a Paternoster spin-off. I don’t know how I’d feel if this is true, but it's from a pretty trusted source, so ... yeah, that’s something.

[companionsofthedoctor]

Doctor Who Bot Invades Skype

BBC Worldwide and Skype have today announced the launch of the first ever Doctor Who Bot. The Doctor will open the TARDIS doors and invite players to help him save the Universe in an exciting interactive digital experience titled The Saviour of Time. The brand new bot uses the latest technology to deliver a unique experience between the Doctor and the player. In a world first, users get the thrilling opportunity to be the Doctor's companion as the bot immerses them in a specially-written six-part Doctor Who adventure. Players will experience the Doctor communicating with them directly and setting them challenges that can only be solved by the best companions. Launching across multiple territories today, 3rd May, the bot includes challenges, logic puzzles, and quizzes, revolving around the search for a mysterious artefact known as the Key To Time. Scattered throughout time and space, users must locate all six segments of the Key and restore it, in order to save the Universe. Following the launch today, a new Chapter will be released every Sunday at 6 PM (BST), shortly after episodes of Doctor Who series 10 air on BBC One, BBC AMERICA (USA), Space (Canada), ABC (Australia) and in other key international markets.

Jaclyn Lee-Joe, Chief Marketing Officer at BBC Worldwide said:

“It’s hugely exciting to be launching a Doctor Who Bot on Skype - which gives us the opportunity to deliver a new form of digital story-telling with our cutting-edge brand. Through this new innovation we get to experience first-hand how bots can help deliver digital first content, and immerse audiences, old and new, in the Doctor Who universe like never before.”

Steven Abrahams, Group Product Manager, Studios and Strategic Partnerships for Skype said:

“Our goal is for everyone in the world to experience the best Skype has to offer and the Doctor Who bot with BBC Worldwide brings a range of new features and functionality. We’re excited to see the bot bring users and fans one step closer to meeting the iconic Doctor.”

The bot will feature exclusive voice-over from Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi, and is creatively developed by writing talent Joe Lidster (The Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood).

The Doctor Who Bot builds upon existing relationships between BBC Worldwide and Skype, working together to uncover exciting new ways to reach audiences. In 2015 Skype launched the shareable, movie and TV clips initiative, Skype Mojis – featuring exhilarating short-form content from Top Gear, Doctor Who, and Sherlock. To add the Doctor Who Bot manually, users need to search for “Doctor Who Bot” in the Skype Bot Directory, read the bot’s profile and terms, and then click “Add to Contacts”. To see new updates as they begin to roll out, users need to be on the latest Skype app for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, or Web. The Doctor Who Bot will be available from the Skype Bot Directory in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, India, Singapore, Italy, Spain, France, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Czech Republic, Estonia, Portugal, Russia, Mexico, and Brazil.

Click here to add the Doctor Who bot to Skype and start saving the universe! Visit the Skype blog for more information on the bot and click here for a step-to-step guide on how to use the bot.

[doctorwhonews]

BBC Store to Close in November

Latest from the news site: BBC Worldwide has announced that the BBC Store website and apps will be closing on 1st November 2017. The BBC Store was launched in the UK in November 2015, giving users the ability to download programmes from the extensive BBC archive. It was the platform chosen to launch the animated version of The Power of the Daleks last autumn. However, the service has struggled to compete with the established streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime and BBC Worldwide have taken the decision to close the service. Users who have purchased items from the site will be able to download and watch them until the site closes in November. The items will then become unavailable and users will be able to request a refund. From 1st June you will no longer be able to watch programmes you purchased from BBC Store on BBC iPlayer. Refunds can be processed earlier than November, but you will lose the ability to access your programmes once the refund has been issued. Refunds will either be credited to the user's bank account or can be taken as Amazon Video vouchers. Those who opt for vouchers will receive 10% more than they are owed, as a goodwill gesture. For full details logon to the BBC Store website. A statement on the BBC Store website says the BBC will continue to find new ways of making BBC archive content available. Doctor Who News http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2017/05/bbc-store-to-close-in-november.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr