Nepal
NEPAL is a land-locked nation in central Asia; it shares a border with India.
Profile
| Country Number (N/K) | ||
| Region | Asia | |
| Television commenced | 5 January 1985 | |
| Colour System | 5 January 1985 | PAL |
| Population | 1987 | 17 million |
| TV Sets | 1990 | 27,000 |
| Language/s | Nepali, English | Subtitled |
Television Stations / Channels
Nepal began its regular PAL colour television service in January 1985.
There is just one Government-owned television service, Nepal Television Corporation (Channel 25 / TV25), operating from Kathmandu.
By the mid-1990s, a number of satellite channels were available, including at least one BBC channel -- see below.
Language/s
The principal language of Nepal is Nepali. Foreign-language television programmes are usually subtitled.
DOCTOR WHO IN NEPAL
BBC Records
Nepal is not named in any of the main BBC Records sources that we have used.
We became aware of potential screenings in Nepal on this FORUM POSTING: "I have a friend who grew up in Nepal who said he watched black and white Dr. Who episodes in the early 1990s…", which is all we have to go on.
Stories bought and broadcast
The majority of all television sets sold and owned in Nepal were black and white, so the reference to "black and white" episodes does not necessarily mean that TV25 screened William Hartnell or Patrick Troughton stories. In all likelihood, the episodes would have been the more widely-sold Tom Baker stories.
Transmission
TV listings
The only Nepalese newspaper we have been able to access was The Rising Nepal from 1989 to 1996. The paper did publish comprehensive TV listings for Nepal TV plus the external satellite stations owned by "STAR TELEVISION" (Satellite Television Asian Region), a company based in Hong Kong that was established in 1992. These channels included Star Movies, Star Plus, V Channel, and BBC - all of which were also available in India and other parts of Asia.
The BBC channel carried by STAR was the "Asia feed" of the BBC World Service Television. However, this feed did not include the 1992, 1993, 1994 repeats of Doctor Who that were seen in Europe.
BBC World Service later became BBC Prime, which commenced a repeat run of Doctor Who -- including black and white Jon Pertwee stories -- in January 1995. While it's not clear if this channel was available in Nepal at the time, if so, then it is highly likely to be the source of the episodes that our "eye witness" saw.
Nepal in Doctor Who
- In The Talons of Weng-Chiang, the Doctor incorrectly attributes J. Milton Hayes' poem The Green Eye of the Yellow God ("There's a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Kathmandu...") to Harry Champion
