Twitch Launches Seven-Week Classic Doctor Who Special Viewing Event

Over 500 classic episodes from the 1960s to the 1980s will air worldwide on Twitch from May 29 to July 2

SAN FRANCISCO – May 23, 2018 – Social video service  Twitch today announced it is joining forces with BBC Studios for the first-ever digital broadcasting event of the Classic Doctor Who series. Over 500 episodes from 26 seasons dating from the show’s inception in 1963 until the 1980s will air worldwide over a seven-week period. Starting May 29, fans can tune in each week Monday to Friday at 11 am PDT to catch episodes onTwitch.tv/TwitchPresents.

Doctor Who is a British action adventure sci fi series produced by BBC Studios which follows the adventures of “The Doctor”, an alien Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who travels through time in a TARDIS, a spaceship shaped like a police telephone box. Accompanied by a number of friends, the Doctor combats a variety of foes, while working to save civilizations and help those in need. Instead of dying, the Doctor is able to “regenerate” into a new body, taking on a new personality with each regeneration. This has led to 13 different incarnations of the Doctor appearing in the series.

Nick Coulter, Director of Digital Sales and Business Development at BBC Studios says: “We are constantly looking at ways to reach new audiences and make it easier for fans to engage with our most popular shows. Doctor Who, in particular, has a great tradition of pioneering new technologies, from early VHS all the way through to the new digital services of today. Twitch is another great example of this, as a brilliant service with over 15 million active daily users, we are thrilled to be able to offer them the chance to indulge in the Classic Doctor Who series and celebrate its amazing 54 year legacy of excitement and innovation.”

Leveraging the real-time shared viewer experience that has defined Twitch, Doctor Who is the latest entry in over a dozen TV shows that have aired on the service. To elevate the social experience in chat, viewers who Subscribe to the TwitchPresents channel will gain access to 14 exclusive emotes themed after each of the first seven doctors.

For Doctor Who fans in the US, UK, and Canada, Twitch is hosting a giveaway each week of the event, including a grand prize trip to London Comic Con in Fall 2018. For details on the giveaway, visit: https://watch.twitch.tv/DoctorWhoSweepstakes.

As part of the event, leading UK digital content creators The Yogscast are producing a series of shows that will introduce each Doctor. With a cast ofDoctor Who screenwriters, experts, fans, and even a former companion, the Yogscast’s Turps and resident Doctor Who expert and High Roller’s player Matt Toffollo will be discussing why modern audiences should be watching Doctor Who. Each 20-minute episode will provide a brief summary of the stories that are about to be shown, including the actors, monsters, famous phrases or production gaffes to look out for. With first-hand knowledge from former companion Katy Manning (who played Jo Grant the Third Doctor Companion) and writers Bob Baker and Paul Cornell, the shows will give insight into the series alongside the humor and irreverence viewers expect from the Yogscast.

“Doctor Who and its clever take on sci-fi exemplifies the type of adjacent content to gaming that has resonated with the Twitch community,” said Jane Weedon, Director of Business Development at Twitch. “By presenting this iconic BBC show in a new interactive format, it is a fun new way to bridge several generations of Doctor Who fans, while building a new generation of them.”

For more information on the Doctor Who episodes that will air on Twitch, visit the Twitch blog.
 

Beyond the Twitch digital marathon, Classic Doctor Who is also regularly available to stream on BritBox, the subscription video on demand service from BBC Studios and ITV, in the U.S. and Canada. www.BritBox.com.
 

About Twitch
Twitch is the world’s leading social video service and community for gamers. Each day, millions of community members gather to watch, talk, and chat about shared interests. Twitch’s video service is the backbone of both live and on-demand distribution for the entire video game ecosystem, and adjacent interests including the creative arts, vlogging (IRL), and more. Twitch also runs TwitchCon, the annual convention for celebrating the Twitch community. For more information about Twitch, visit our Press Center, Twitter feed (#Twitch), and Blog.

About BBC Studios
BBC Studios, a global content company with British creativity at its heart, is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC Group. Formed in April 2018 by the merger of BBC Worldwide and BBC Studios, it spans content financing, development, production, sales, branded services and ancillaries. BBC Studios’ award-winning British programmes are internationally recognised across a broad range of genres and specialisms. It has offices in 22 markets globally, including six production bases in the UK and production bases and partnerships in a further nine countries around the world. The company, which makes 2500 hours of content a year, is a champion for British creativity around the world and a committed partner for the UK’s independent sector. BBC Studios has revenue of $1.94bn, and returns around $277.22m to the BBC Group annually, complementing the BBC’s licence fee and enhancing programmes for UK audiences.
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About Doctor Who
Doctor Who is one of the longest running action adventure television series in the world spanning 55 years and winning over 100 awards. This quintessentially British show has a huge global following, with 9m fans across social platforms/channels and 200m video views on Facebook and Youtube. Doctor Who has been sold to over 239 territories in its time. Series 10 was BBC America’s No 1 series, a top five highest rated Drama Series for young adults in the U.K.’s and the highest rated show on Space in Canada. It has been honoured by Guinness World Records as the longest running science-fiction series in the world. Doctor Who has a proven track-record in consumer products and live events with over four million Sonic Screwdrivers sold in the past eleven years, over 12 million action figures sold since 2005, over 18 million DVDS sold globally and over one million tickets sold for live events.