User:SOTO/Forum Archive/The Panopticon/@comment-24894325-20160820225628/@comment-24894325-20160820234123

Here is what I think:
 * 1) To my mind, creating a separate page for all releases of a story resembles the treatment of comic book issues where each comic story has its own page devoted to plot, characters, etc., while each issue has a separate page devoted to merchandising questions (covers, crew, bonus material, etc.). Hence, it seems reasonable, especially when there is a lot of merchandising information, to have a devoted page for it.
 * 2) The feasibility, I think, differs from store to store. Yes, it is true that they can shuffle things all the time. But this would surely undermine their business model. Doctor Who is a big deal for them. Here are just two confirmations: 1) when Netflix first decided to drop Doctor Who, a successful petition was mounted by viewers. As the result, Doctor Who was only dropped from their library when BBC decided to change their distribution model in the US; 2) I read today that Doctor Who has become the most watched show in Amazon Video. So while they can make changes often, they are unlikely to follow this path. In my experience, changes are rare unless a big shake up happens like described above. I can remember iTunes changing a cover for the newly found serials. It also seems that BBC Store has added a few titles since its opening. But so far I alone managed to cope with these changes in Seasons 1-9. Yes, Wales Who undergoes more changes with new seasons made available and old seasons disappearing from the stores. But this should happen on an annual basis (methinks), which is also manageable. Plus some news about availability do appear on Doctor Who news aggregators. Thus, I believe digital releases can be tracked, at least for the stores I have experience with (iTunes, BBC Store, Netflix). In addition, this is information that can really be used by many. Some classic serials are hidden in the catalogs, e.g., placed in NuWho collections. I do not actually know a good up-to-date source listing various legal ways of streaming classic Who. Most guides in blogs I could find reflect the pre-shake-up status quo. So providing this information would be a service to the Whovians of the world.
 * 3) The regional differences is really a thorny issue and is, I think, more affected by feasibility concerns. The rough situation is as follows:
 * 4) * BBC Store is only available in the UK
 * 5) * iTunes only sells TV shows in 6 countries (UK, US, Australia, Canada, France and Germany)
 * 6) * Amazon seems to be more complicated: it has 14 separate stores, only 4 of which have Amazon Video, responsible for streaming content. However, these 4 stores (UK, US, Japan, Germany) cover 5 countries, with Austria added to the German store.
 * 7) * Netflix is available in almost all countries (more than 100). Availability differs greatly though classic Doctor Who is currently not available anywhere. Still, there is a website that allows to find the list of countries for each individual series.
 * 8) * Hulu Plus seems to be out of Doctor Who for the foreseeable
 * 9) * Google Play is terra incognita for me. I know absolutely nothing about it.
 * 10) * So looking at the data, it seems reasonable to restrict this English-language variant of the Wikia to English-speaking countries to avoid the subtle differences of 100+ Netflix libraries. I suspect that VHS/DVD releases for Canada were the same as for the US, which is not anymore the case for digital releases. Therefore, adding Canada and New Zealand seems reasonable. Any other countries? On the other hand, tracking availability in Germany, France, etc. may be left to the German, French, etc. Tardis Wikis.
 * 11) As for release dates, I do not believe it is generally possible to find this information. It is often provided inconsistently even within the same store. iTunes has a tendency of putting the original airing date as their "release" date. Finding this information is a nightmare. It is not worth the time spent. Perhaps, this information can be omitted due to the unique possibility of things being de-released. When a DVD is published, its release date is not going to change. But steaming of a season can be disallowed. So in this case current availability seems more relevant that the release date.