#our flag bbc

[ncutis-special-human-being]

Perfect shirt for modern AU Zheng

[nerd-elf]

Whenever I watch good omens or our flag means death, it comforts me. Seeing two people that have lived a lot, but apparently never really been in love and then it just…happens. It truly warms my heart.

[nerd-elf]

Thank you for the representation, season 2 Ed 🤣🤣🤣

[nerd-elf]

And it worked 🤣🤣🤣

[nuka]

Well. I woke up and read David's post. It's been an hour and I've gone through every emotion possible for a human being.

If Our Flag Means Death doesn't get its last season, I have no hope for TV anymore. Like, I'm done. I don't want to start a new show if it doesn't get a proper ending. I'm tired of queer shows getting cancelled. I'm just so. fucking. tired.

One more season was all it needed. ONE.

I'm seeing a lot of people in the fandom who aren't giving up on the campaign. I'm not either, until David says "please stop, I've given up, so you should too".

David's post makes it sound that there was interest in the show.

I'm gonna hang out with a friend today and take a breather. My thoughts are all over the place rn.

I am forever grateful for this show, for everything we got. For the journeys of self-discovery so many of us went through because of this show. For everyone who's been fighting to get our pirates back. For everyone involved in making the show.

Crew for life. 🏴‍☠️💜

[queerly-autistic]

I've seen some concern about the fact that the BBC has double-billed the last four episodes of Our Flag Means Death and bumped it up later in the schedule - concerns that this means it's not doing well for the BBC - and so I'd just like to allay some of those fears, if possible? To start with, it's important to recognise that the BBC does this all the time. I was in EastEnders fandom for many years, and nonsense schedule changes were a regular annoyance. When I shared OFMD's schedule change with my little group of friends from that fandom, everyone rolled their eyes and went 'oh yeah, typical BBC shenanigans'. As an example: the BBC was really pushing EastEnders last year, they'd been hard-marketing towards the big iconic Christmas episode since February, and then, around comes Christmas, and the BBC inexplicably sticks it on at 10pm (when it's usually broadcast at 7.30pm).

So this isn't unusual. This is extremely common. There's often very little rhyme or reason to the BBC live broadcast scheduling. To try and accurately read between the lines of this is like trying to analyse the written output of a cat walking across a keyboard.

But another big thing to remember is that Our Flag Means Death is a streaming show. The BBC dropped all of the episodes in one go because they know that it's the streaming audience where the show is successful. It's the same with What We Do In The Shadows - we know that the show does well for them, because they keep renewing their contract to show it, but because it does well specifically with a streaming audience the live episode broadcasts are perpetually bumped to a weird time (sometimes one in the morning!!).

The BBC is under contract to do a live broadcast of these shows, but that's not where the audience is. And that's why the episodes get shuffled around or bumped to a late timeslot or double-billed together. Them not necessarily getting spectacular overnight live broadcast ratings is not a big barrier to potential pick-up - streaming numbers is the important metric. And, just yesterday, the BBC dropped a card for the show over the credits of House of Games, a very popular (and mainstream!) afternoon gameshow, asking people to go stream it on iPlayer. if you haven't seen it, I managed to screen-record and post it on Twitter here (subtitles included): https://x.com/QueerlyAutistic/status/1762913455051325888?s=20. This is a really, really good ad to get - a very mainstream slot that potentially brings attention to the show from new audience demographics. The fact that they put an ad-read for the show in this particular slot is more indicative to me of the fact that the show is doing well for the BBC than any predictable shenanigans around live broadcast times. They advertised the 'niche' queer pirate comedy to a very mainstream middle-of-the-day audience! That's not nothing! And the fact that they were specifically advertising it as being on iPlayer - not the live broadcast - indicates to me that that's where it's doing well: that's where they know their audience is, and they don't care about the live broadcast, because the streams are where it's at. The live broadcast is probably just a contractual obligation at this point.

Our Flag Means Death is still regularly listed under 'trending' on the iPlayer website, and the Parrot Analytics for the show in the UK are excellent. And that's what we want. That's what we need to convince streamers. Remember: the YouGov survey about the show specifically asked questions about it in the context of streaming services. Overnight figures are lovely to have, too (so keep tuning in!) but this is a show made to stream. It was all dropped on iPlayer first for a reason; they're specifically pushing it on iPlayer for a reason. And, at the end of the day, it's streamers we're currently trying to convince to pick up the show, not broadcast television networks.

So, don't read too much into it. We're still doing good, UK crew!

[pizzaplexbonnie]

Bestieeesss does anyone know a way to watch our flag means death? I don’t have HBO max

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

Hi there! First off, I wanted to thank you so much for doing all the recaps—they’ve been incredibly helpful to see every day!

Second, I was curious about something and wondered if you or your followers maybe had any insight—do you think it means anything that the BBC changed the timeslot and are going to air double episodes? I’m worried it means the show is underperforming, but I’m not super familiar with how the BBC works so maybe it’s normal?

Anyways, thank you again!

Hi Anon! Sorry for the delay! I'm so glad they're helping! If yall ever have any ideas for more stuff you want to know about please let me know! I'll do my best :)

In regards to the BBC question-- you know I'm not sure. I know changing schedules in the US can mean underperforming, but last time I looked at some stats that didn't seem to be the case. Let me ask around and get back to you!

If any mutuals know by chance-- feel free to hop in on the discussion!