Board Thread:The Panopticon/@comment-26975268-20130201045831/@comment-188432-20130208222954

Oh, no. Lol. You think the US is that big an audience? Nah, it's tiny. As a percentage of population that knows about Doctor Who, it's probably New Zealand that's the winner. That's why Tom Baker as the Doctor in the 1990s was a big enough draw to warrant his use in commercials about, of all things, financial instruments.

Next up is Australia, where it's broadcast on a real national broadcaster and gets about 1/16th-1/20th of the whole population each episode. Then there's Canada, where it has a tradition on the CBC and now is pulling numbers on Space that are roughly BBCA-like. So, yanno, 1 million viewers in a country of 30+ million versus 1 million viewers in a country of 300+ million. (Obviously DW's reach in the US is a little more once you factor in iTunes and DVD sales, but still, you're talking somewhere between 1 and 2 percent of the population — and a little more if you factor in all the people who have seen it at some point and are still alive.

It's total hype that DW is a big deal in America. It's, at best, a bigger deal, amplified by the multiplicative effect of the American media's outsized footprint on the internet. It's a bigger deal, now that there's an actual network in charge of its broadcast (rather than individual PBS stations). But that network only covers about 75% of the country, and its reach is severely limited by the fact that it's on cable, but not basic cable.

Yes, there are ways to paint the story of DW on BBCA so that it looks great: fastest growing network on cable, biggest ratings on that fastest growing network, biggest downloads of seasonal TV on iTunes, advertisement in New York City, cover of TV Guide.

But you've gotta keep your eye on the ball: raw numbers of people who are watching the show. And when you put all of the numbers together, you're nowhere close to the bog-standard episode of Castle — or even Lost or Heroes, really. Remember, in the UK, DW rates favourably compared to even huge, once-in-a-lifetime sporting events. In the US, the very worst and most insignificant NFL game beats DW's rating by a factor of 20 or 30.

Also, the fact that DW does not stream for free in the US — even for the limited time of a couple of weeks after broadcast — is pretty unusual and is certainly limiting its reach.

The situation is improving in the US, but the words Doctor Who still elicit blank stares.