Qatar
QATAR is a peninsular Middle Eastern country on the Persian Gulf.
Profile
| Country Number (?) | 1977 | SECOND WAVE |
| Region | Middle East | |
| Television commenced | 15 August 1970 | |
| Colour System | 1 July 1974 | PAL |
| Population | 1977 | 175,000 |
| TV Sets | 1977 | 34,000 |
| Language/s | Arabic |
Television Stations / Channels
Station: Qatar Television Service, a government-owned commercial broadcaster. This is the only broadcaster, but it operates three channels: 9, 11 (exclusively Arabic. (An English-only service, Channel 37 was launched in the mid-1980s.)
Doctor Who therefore screened in Arabic.
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.
Television receivers in United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia could also receive transmissions from Qatar.
DOCTOR WHO (ادكتورهو) IN QATAR
Qatar was we think the eighth country in the Middle East region to buy Doctor Who. (It was one of the last countries in the Persian Gulf area to launch a local television service.)
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. (Assuming the stories were sold "in order", and only those that existed on PAL video tape were available, then chances are the third story was Day of the Daleks.
Stories bought and broadcast
JON PERTWEE
Three stories, 12 episodes:
| AAA | Spearhead from Space | 4 |
| KKK | Day of the Daleks | 4 |
| PPP | Carnival of Monsters | 4 |
The programme would have been supplied as PAL colour video tapes.
Since the English-only channel did not launch until the mid-1980s, Doctor Who almost certainly aired in Qatar in Arabic.
Origin of the tapes?
Qatar, like the other Persian Gulf states – United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia (and Kuwait?) - all screened the same episodes of Doctor Who (Pertwees and Bakers) around the same time, so it is expected that there was lots of tape exchanges taking place between countries.
Transmission
JON PERTWEE
We have been unable to find any airdates for Qatar. The sales dates for the series are recorded as 1977, so presumably the episodes aired in that year.
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 during a "Children's Hour" schedule, and therefore didn't have its own billing in the newspapers.
