Qatar
QATAR is a country at the north of the Persian Gulf, in the Middle East.
Profile
| Country Number (?) | ? | SECOND WAVE? |
| Region | Middle East | . |
| Television commenced | 1970 | . |
| Colour System | 1974 | PAL |
| Population | 19xx | xx mill |
| TV Sets | 19xx | xx mill |
| Language/s | Arabic and English | . |
Television Stations / Channels
Station: Qatar Television Service, a government-owned commercial broadcaster. This is the only broadcaster, but it operates three channels:
Ident / Channels: 9,11,37
Although QTS didn't commence its own colour transmissions until 1974, those with colour sets could receive transmissions from nearby Bahrain, which had been transmitting in colour since 1973.
DOCTOR WHO IN QATAR
Qatar was the eighth country in the Middle East region to buy Doctor Who.
BBC Records
The Eighties - THE LOST CHAPTERS records a sale of "(3)" stories by 10 February 1987.
In DWM, Qatar is identified in only two story Archives: AAA and PPP, with a sale date given as 1977. Presumably the third unknown story is also a Jon Pertwee serial.
Stories bought and broadcast
JON PERTWEE
Three stories, ? episodes:
| AAA | Spearhead from Space | 4 |
| PPP | Carnival of Monsters | 4 |
| . | unknown | . |
The programme would have been supplied as PAL colour video tapes with English soundtracks.
Origin of the tapes?
Qatar, like the other Persian Gulf states – United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia (and Kuwait?) - all seemed to screen Doctor Who (Pertwees and Bakers) around the same time, so it is expected that there was lots of tape exchanges taking place.
Transmission
JON PERTWEE
NONE: We have been unable to find any airdates for Qatar.
TV listings
Despite having accessed and checked several Qatar and Persian Gulf region newspapers from 1977 onwards, many of which contained TV listings for all stations from the wider Gulf region, there was no sign of Doctor Who in any of the listings for Qatar Television Service.
Qatar did screen children's programming on weekday afternoons, and during the weekends, so it's possible that Doctor Who screened then, and simply doesn't have its own billing in the newspapers.
It is also entirely possible that Qatar itself did not actually purchase and screen the series, but since it could receive TV broadcasts from its neighbours the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, all of which did screen Doctor Who, Qatar may have had to pay a "fee" to the BBC as a matter of course, and it is this 'payment' that appears in BBC Records.
The Arabic state broadcasters of the Persian Gulf were members of the Arab States Broadcasting Union (established in 1969), which regulated regional TV and radio broadcasts, so there may have been an agreement reached in that some of the costs incurred by one broadcaster would be covered by others that also received those transmissions.
