Beginning June 11th, Doctor Who fans in the US will have 13 seasons available to binge, featuring beloved Doctors portrayed by David Tennant, Matt Smith, Jodie Whittaker, Christopher Eccleston and Peter Capaldi.
AMC+ announced today that it will be the new, exclusive streaming home to 13 seasons and 175 episodes (including specials) of Doctor Who (2005 – 2022) in the US, beginning Thursday June 11. The longest-running British science fiction television series, which premiered 20 years ago this year in the US, follows the stories of a regenerating Time Lord who travels on adventures through all of time and space.
While I’d like to believe that this implies some sort of institutional support for the series’ future from AMC, they’ve been majority (or near majority) owners of BBC America for over a decade and are also financially tied to BritBox. So it could just as easily be an indication that no one else was interested after the Disney+ years, leaving AMC+ as the obvious fallback option.
Nice to have a streaming home in America of any kind, but this doesn’t make me excessively optimistic.
I had this in FFA for the discussion there but I’ll add it here too since it fits:
AMC+ streaming deal is good for Ninth to Thirteenth but it’s not a platform anyone I know uses. That’s not to say it’s not used, Walking Dead is on there. None of my friends really watch that.
This is great news for keeping Doctor Who accessible to U.S. audiences. The wider problem is just an unavoidable licensing headache: D+ retains Fourteenth and Fifteenth content, Britbox is the leading source for Classic (Tubi with ads). Nothing is ever clean but at least it’s good news.
I think this is good news for American viewers. AMC+ wasn’t obligated to do this. To your point, it doesn’t really speak to investing in the future of the show, but it’s not supposed to. It’s not a co-production deal like with Disney+. It’s just streaming for America.
Again, as I mentioned elsewhere, I did subscribe to AMC+ for a bit, and it was strictly because the streaming services I had at the time didn’t have Doctor Who and I wanted to watch Flux as it was coming out.
Think I watched a few classic serials that were animated they had at the time, too.
Cancelled it when I finished Flux and after I watched those.
See I want to do that but that requires energy of getting off the couch to boot up my Xbox find the disc put it in lol it’s much easier to sit my lazy ass down and open it. I’m also going to subscribe to it primarily because a) I’m hoping they’re going to be the new home for Christmas and beyond and b) it’s like 30/yr at the moment (sale expired 24th I believe) and it’s regularly like 110/year
I’ve honestly never heard of AMC+ and there aren’t really any other shows I’d want to watch on it. I guess I’ll subscribe during new Doctor Who releases but I have most of DW downloaded on apple tv thankfully. I would like to get DVDs of the whole show though because I’m not a fan of subscription services lol
I’m glad that Doctor Who finally found a home but I’m a little worried. AMC+ is not very popular so I feel like the new seasons won’t attract many new viewers. Though I honestly wouldn’t be opposed to a brief Wilderness Years pt 2 electric boogaloo so we can let new writers and actors come into the scene and get creative again!
Not only that it will come back, but that it wont be rebooted.
Of the great many revivals pitched in the Wilderness Years there are three that arnt unrecognizable mangled reboots. Shulka (robot Master aside), the final movie script (half human aside), and the actual revival. Everything else is “thank ■■■■ we dodged a bullet there!”
Now imagine trying to pitch a show to studio heads staring “The 17th Doctor”. Hell the BBC didnt think audiences could handle a 10th or 11th Doctor if I recal correctly and thats after a successful 9th!
I think this might actually work in Doctor Who’s favor. Less Doctor Who fans already have AMC+ than Disney+ so they’re likely to get a bigger bump in subscribers than Disney did, and that bump will make up a larger percentage of their total subscriptions than with Disney, so they’re more likely to hold onto it for more than their minimum contracted commitment
But are they the US distributor for post reality war? Because if not, unless they plan to get 1-7, 8, 14-15, or spinoffs I wonder how long they can hold people for
