Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is a national television network in Canada, and is akin to the BBC in that it is primarily government-funded (although, unlike the BBC, the CBC airs commercials).

Prior to relocating to the UK where he created series such as The Avengers and Doctor Who, Sydney Newman, a Canadian, worked for the CBC.

In 1964, the CBC became the first North American broadcaster of Doctor Who when it began airing the early William Hartnell-era stories, but the network cancelled its broadcasts after about a year.

In 2005, history repeated itself when the CBC hosted the North American broadcast premiere of the revived series, initially broadcasting the show only a couple of weeks after its UK telecast (and many months before American broadcasts of the revived series began). The CBC also received screen credit for contributing development funds towards the new series. The 2005 broadcasts were sponsored by TV Guide magazine, and Christopher Eccleston videotaped a series of introductions and "bumpers" in which he discussed the series and its characters and also promoted a contest run by TV Guide and the CBC, the first prize being a trip to Wales to visit the set of Doctor Who. One phrase coined during one of the bumpers, "Hands off the TARDIS - Doctor Who will return", continued to be used on commercial bumpers into the 2008 season (albeit spoken by an announcer and no longer by Eccleston).

Most broadcasts of the 2005 season ended with a brief, Doctor Who Confidential-style look behind the scenes, and the CBC also compiled its own version of Confidential for its website. The CBC was criticised for editing episodes for length (due to the need to fit in commercials) and for editing out the cliffhanger resolution on World War Three.

On December 26, 2005, the CBC aired The Christmas Invasion, one day after its UK showing. For this occasion, Billie Piper recorded special introductions and bumpers, wearing an outfit with the Canadian-iconic "Roots" logo.

In 2005, it was also announced that the CBC would co-produce the first season of Torchwood in much the same capacity as it did Doctor Who.

Beginning in 2006, broadcasts of Doctor Who became less timely on the CBC, as the broadcaster chose not to air the series until well after its broadcast in the UK, but still before the US broadcast. The second series was also interrupted (in-between the two-parter The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit) by a lengthly mid-season break. As a result, the Canadian release of the 2nd Series DVD set actually occurred the week before the CBC broadcast the series finale. As a result of the mid-season break, the 2006 Christmas special, The Runaway Bride was not aired during the holiday season.

In 2007, the CBC aired the third series of Doctor Who, with the episodes beginning a couple of weeks prior to the season finale airing in the UK. In an unusual decision, the Christmas special, The Runaway Bride aired in an after-midnight time slot several hours after the season premiere, Smith and Jones.

Meanwhile, nearly a full year after it had aired in the UK, broadcast of the first series of Torchwood on the CBC occurred in the fall of 2007, after the third series of Doctor Who, even though the season finale of Torchwood led into the season finale of Doctor Who. The CBC aired the more adult-oriented Torchwood generally intact, except for censoring certain words of dialogue and making cuts for commercial time.

Ironically, the 2005 through 2007 series were all scheduled following the CBC's broadcasts of Coronation Street, which was an ongoing ratings nemesis of the original series in the 1980s.

In 2008 it was announced that the CBC would no longer be funding Torchwood and would not air the second series (it was subsequently aired by a competing network, Space, about five months after its UK broadcast). It was rumored that the CBC had also dropped its funding for Series 4 of Doctor Who, which was supported by the fact the CBC no longer received screen credit on Series 4 episodes, but the CBC later said it was still supporting the series.

In May 2008, after months of speculation by Canadian fans, the CBC announced it would belatedly air the fourth series starting on September 19, 2008 in the same Friday-night timeslot formerly occupied by Torchwood, months after the broadcast of the series in both the UK and US. Although there was initial speculation that the network would split the season into two halves as it did with Season 2, ultimately it was announced that the series would be shown unintrerrupted to its conclusion in December. The series was no longer paired with Coronation Street in its new timeslot, instead it followed reruns of The Rick Mercer Report, a Canadian variant on Jon Stewart's Daily Show.

Controversially, the network chose not to broadcast the 2007 Christmas special, Voyage of the Damned, meaning Canadian viewers were not given a resolution to the previous season's cliffhanger. As of late November 2008 there has been no announcement as to whether the special will ever be aired by the CBC; nor has the network indicated if it will air the 2008 special, The Next Doctor. On 18 November 2008, the DVD box set of the fourth season was released in Canada, even though the CBC broadcasts still had 4 episodes left. (The CBC either did not attempt to, or they were unsuccessful in, delaying the Canadian release of the set; unlike Space which was able to delay the Canadian release of Torchwood Series 2 on DVD until after its broadcasts of the show had concluded.

No announcement has likewise been made yet as to whether the CBC will air any of the special episodes planned for 2009-2010, or if it will carry the series proper when it returns in 2010.