United States--1991-

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United States--1991-2020s

Sci-Fi Channel flyer
TV Guide print ad for the 1996 "Doctor Who" movie, for FOX affiliate stations in the New York state area: WOLF (38), WICZ (40), WSYT (68), WNYW (5)


1991


1992


PATRICK TROUGHTON (continued)

One story, four episodes (also "movie length" omnibus):

MM The Tomb of the Cybermen 4


1993-1998

  • March 1993: Maryland Public Television is the only mid-Atlantic station still screening the series.
  • December 1993: By the end of the year, SCI-FI drops Doctor Who from its schedule.
  • 1994: More and more PBS stations do not renew their contracts.


JON PERTWEE (continued)

One episode:

WWW Invasion of the Dinosaurs 1



SYLVESTER McCOY (continued)

PAUL McGANN

TV Movie, 84 minutes:

TVM The TV Movie 1
  • Starting in late 1996, and through until the early 2000s, some of the Reeltime Pictures documentaries are shown on US stations, usually as late night Pledge Specials; Return to Devil's End is often paired up with repeats of The Daemons.
  • The TV Movie was to have been repeated by Fox on 31 December 1996 (the day on which the story was set), but it was pulled at the eleventh hour.
  • 1998: By early 1998, only a handful of PBS stations are still regularly screening the series, such as: Iowa, Denver, San Jose, Baltimore, and Cincinnati.


2000 to 2020

  • By the turn of the millennium, sales of Doctor Who have all but dried up, and by 2001, Doctor Who begins to fade from television screens in America... Except for WENH in Denham, New Hampshire, which still airs the series, eventually dropping it in November 2004.
  • 17 March 2006 to 5 April 2008: The NEW SERIES (the first four new series only) screens on the Sci-Fi Channel.
  • 27 June 2009: The NEW SERIES shifts to BBC America, who screens the run of Specials and all subsequent seasons.
  • From 2011, KBTC in Tacoma, Washington becomes the sole USA station still screening "classic" episodes of Doctor Who.
RetroTV logo.png

PATRICK TROUGHTON (continued)

One story, five episodes:

QQ The Web of Fear 5
  • 14-15 March 2015: IPTV purchases the newly-recovered Patrick Troughton serial The Web of Fear to screen as part of a special pledge drive. The still-missing third episode is covered by a special on-camera narration provided by Lars Pearson.
  • 7 May 2016: Station KERA in Dallas starts repeating the Tom Baker episodes.
  • The station continues to screen selected "classic" episodes from time to time over the next few years; from 7 July 2018 they screened for the first time a run of William Hartnell stories.
  • 2018 ---: The animated reconstructions of missing episodes air on BBC America.
  • 19 January 2019: KERA's rights expire midway through their first run of Patrick Troughton stories.
  • 2019: Only the small handful of US stations still clinging to their rights to the classic series play omnibus editions during the year: Retro TV, KBTC, KRSU, WMVS/MPTV, WSRE, Iowa Public Television, and Idaho Public Television. Some of these stations air the same episodes in the same way: Tom, Peter and Colin stories only, as omnibuses, late on Saturday nights, with 6-parters shown in two halves a week apart, and several Dalek serials omitted.
  • By the start of 2020, the BBC has effectively stopped selling the series (old and new) to minor broadcasters, with the intention perhaps - once the above stations' rights expire - to leave BBC America and Online services as the only sources of Doctor Who in the USA ...
  • For the remainder of 2020, only six known US stations are still screening Classic Who: Retro TV, KBTC, WMVS/MPTV, WSRE, Iowa Public Television and Idaho Public Television (which end on October 2020).


2021 and beyond...

  • As 2021 begins, only Retro TV, KBTC, WMVS/MPTV, and Iowa Public Television are still showing the limited selection of classic Doctor stories, either episodically or as "Movies".
  • At the start of 2022, only Retro TV, KBTC and Iowa Public Television remain; all three are still recycling the limited selection of classic Doctor stories, either episodically or as "Movies".
  • In October 2022 it is announced that Disney Branded Television had secured all international screening rights to the series (excluding the UK for which the BBC retains its rights), and from November 2023 will have all new episodes on its streaming platform Disney+. This exclusive deal means that most of the foreign broadcasters that had been (or still were) airing both classic and new series (either terrestrially or via other transmission methods) would lose their rights to screen old as well as new episodes.
  • As the programme enters its 60th anniversary year 2023, Iowa Public Television drops out at the end of January, but resumes in April. That station plus Retro TV and KBTC are the only three still hanging on ...
  • But as the anniversary month arrives, only KBTC is still screening the series, reaching Pertwee's final season... however Iowa Public Television makes a brief return in December to show season 17 Bakers, but the series is gone again once The Horns of Nimon airs on 30 December.
  • It's a new year, and 2024 sees KBTC cycling back to Tom Baker, while Retro TV continues its confusing cycle of airing one complete story on Saturdays and Sundays, plus two episodes each weekday of a different sequence of stories. But as at 15 January 2024, the series is gone from Retro TV, leaving KBTC the last man standing... By the middle of the year, KBTC is still hanging on, showing Tom Baker at the weekends...