Why would it be sad to find something in Australia?
We know what happened to the Australian prints - they were returned to BBC Enterprises in 1974, and all subsequently junked. Apart from the handful that got spirited away, which is why odd Australian edited episodes (Galaxy 4 and The Underwater Menace, for the most recent examples) have occasionally turned up in the UK and not Australia.
This is along the lines with what I speculated. The thing with this theory I don't understand is that I heard the BBC is not in the business to use tax payers money to potentially line people's pockets in order to get old shows back -? This would seem to indicate, well possibly this is not necessarily the case. Why do we know so little about the whole process and what is really going on? It's incredible really. All seems to be based on a lot of wide-ranging theories being shared on websites like this (to which I'm part of I might add).
It depends. The BBC itself uses money from the licence fee (not technically a tax, but in practice one) but it also operates a traditional commercial company, BBC Enterprises, which certainly can make investments as long as it gets a return. Depending on how they did it, BBC Enterprises could have bought the episodes knowing it could sell them via iTunes and DVD.
That's an angle which I don't believe has been explored so far: WEB and ENEMY did well on iTunes but their real sales performance will probably come from DVD. It may well be that the BBC themselves have decided not to buy any more missing episodes back from PM (or anyone else, if any of the other rumours are true) until they can fully assess the DVD sales and see how worthwhile it is. If that's the case, we could be looking at many months before any further hard info comes out.
That's an angle which I don't believe has been explored so far: WEB and ENEMY did well on iTunes but their real sales performance will probably come from DVD. It may well be that the BBC themselves have decided not to buy any more missing episodes back from PM (or anyone else, if any of the other rumours are true) until they can fully assess the DVD sales and see how worthwhile it is. If that's the case, we could be looking at many months before any further hard info comes out.
Classic Doctor Who will sell, the BBC don't need proof of this.
Classic Doctor Who will sell, the BBC don't need proof of this.
DW will sell, However, if the BBC have had to shell out a wheelbarrow full of gold for each "found" episode, they need to guarantee a significantly greater return on each "fund" DVD/download than they would in something they've had in the archives all along.
None of us knows if money changed hands for Web/Enemy being returned, but P.Morris must at least need his airfare covered to Nigeria and back.
I would have thought he gets a certain amount of expenses paid and has some kind of limited contract with finding fees based on the importance of what he finds in that time. That's what I'd negotiate. Probably wouldn't be costing BBC Enterprises too much if they are the payers.
So even if it did turn up in Australia there'd be bits cut out by the censors. Not that the story had that much violence.
The Australian cuts from some stories are the only things that survived, ironically. Lost in Time has a whole host of them because the Australians kept all the clippings of the cuts they made but not the episodes themselves!
The Australian cuts from some stories are the only things that survived, ironically. Lost in Time has a whole host of them because the Australians kept all the clippings of the cuts they made but not the episodes themselves!
DW will sell, However, if the BBC have had to shell out a wheelbarrow full of gold for each "found" episode, they need to guarantee a significantly greater return on each "fund" DVD/download than they would in something they've had in the archives all along.
None of us knows if money changed hands for Web/Enemy being returned, but P.Morris must at least need his airfare covered to Nigeria and back.
But no release means no money for anyone. Lets say Phil Morris is holding out for a massive payday, he isn't going to make anything significant unless he sells it to the BBC. The best he can hope for is something from a private collector, and I highly doubt anyone will pay more than the BBC are willing to give him. The episodes cannot be released without the BBC's involvement as they own all the trademarks.
However Phil Morris isn't the sort of person to do anything like that, yes he wants to be paid but he won't be asking for ridiculous amounts, only enough to balance his books and to pay his wage. He may want a % of the sales but I doubt it. Enemy/Web thrust his business into the spotlight. That's got to be worth something to him, and likewise the interviews for DWM and the press will net him more revenue too. None of it will be possible without returning them to the BBC though.
They could even repackage all the stories again and they would sell again.
Dr Who probably sells better than any other TV show.
Would repackinging lead to re-sale? I have bought a couple of the "revisitations" DVDs if I have foudn them cheap in CEX. I've inly got half a dozen of them, and the only one bought new was The Aztecs (bought for Air Lock alone). I would thinka lot of people on this forum might say the same thing ... even if the stories are released on Bluray, most people wouldn't necessarily bother with them again unless there's something very different included.
The thing is, and I'm not saying that I believe this claim, but from listening to the podcast with Steve Roberts, it's not quite as simple as that. Hypothetically someone could have three film cans that are labelled as the episodes mentioned but they have no way of actually playing or recording them until they get someone like Paul V involved.
Unroll a few inches of film and bung it on a flatbed scanner. Easy.
Not everybody can afford HBO/SKY every month. More people actually pirated it than watched on HBO. Some people illegally download then buy the dvd/blu ray legally as a way of supporting the show.
If the same percentage pirated it as bought it as for any other show but the amount of people watching it was much higher than other shows then it would, of necessity, be the most pirated and the best selling
HBO has a special deal with the cable operators. The knock-on effect is that — in the US — it can't sell content into any of the normal places like Netflix or Hulu. It has its own streaming service but it can't sell membership directly to consumers. Instead you have to subscribe to a cable operator, purchase the HBO package then use those credentials to get access to HBO's streaming, direct from HBO.
When HBO content is popular, it is popular in all markets. So it's popular:
when broadcast;
when sold physically; and
for streaming.
However the barrier to legal streaming is absurdly high. As a result there is record piracy. However it replaces streams that people would have paid for, not physical products.
(EDIT: kudos to the Digital Spy team for still offering bullet points in their composer but creating a forum style that doesn't render them)
Comments
Why would it be sad to find something in Australia?
We know what happened to the Australian prints - they were returned to BBC Enterprises in 1974, and all subsequently junked. Apart from the handful that got spirited away, which is why odd Australian edited episodes (Galaxy 4 and The Underwater Menace, for the most recent examples) have occasionally turned up in the UK and not Australia.
Scot Ferre, not of this parish. Hangs out here- http://doctorwhoworldwide.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=27&sid=14172c05d7382f683fd6b3cb3ba4cb4f amongst other places.
It depends. The BBC itself uses money from the licence fee (not technically a tax, but in practice one) but it also operates a traditional commercial company, BBC Enterprises, which certainly can make investments as long as it gets a return. Depending on how they did it, BBC Enterprises could have bought the episodes knowing it could sell them via iTunes and DVD.
That's an angle which I don't believe has been explored so far: WEB and ENEMY did well on iTunes but their real sales performance will probably come from DVD. It may well be that the BBC themselves have decided not to buy any more missing episodes back from PM (or anyone else, if any of the other rumours are true) until they can fully assess the DVD sales and see how worthwhile it is. If that's the case, we could be looking at many months before any further hard info comes out.
Classic Doctor Who will sell, the BBC don't need proof of this.
DW will sell, However, if the BBC have had to shell out a wheelbarrow full of gold for each "found" episode, they need to guarantee a significantly greater return on each "fund" DVD/download than they would in something they've had in the archives all along.
None of us knows if money changed hands for Web/Enemy being returned, but P.Morris must at least need his airfare covered to Nigeria and back.
The Australian cuts from some stories are the only things that survived, ironically. Lost in Time has a whole host of them because the Australians kept all the clippings of the cuts they made but not the episodes themselves!
None from Marco, though.
http://doctorwhoworldwide.com/2014/02/19/head-doctor-restoration-believes-marco-polo-found/
Yeah, but I really like the way that he thinks.
agreed.
They could even repackage all the stories again and they would sell again.
Dr Who probably sells better than any other TV show.
But no release means no money for anyone. Lets say Phil Morris is holding out for a massive payday, he isn't going to make anything significant unless he sells it to the BBC. The best he can hope for is something from a private collector, and I highly doubt anyone will pay more than the BBC are willing to give him. The episodes cannot be released without the BBC's involvement as they own all the trademarks.
However Phil Morris isn't the sort of person to do anything like that, yes he wants to be paid but he won't be asking for ridiculous amounts, only enough to balance his books and to pay his wage. He may want a % of the sales but I doubt it. Enemy/Web thrust his business into the spotlight. That's got to be worth something to him, and likewise the interviews for DWM and the press will net him more revenue too. None of it will be possible without returning them to the BBC though.
Would repackinging lead to re-sale? I have bought a couple of the "revisitations" DVDs if I have foudn them cheap in CEX. I've inly got half a dozen of them, and the only one bought new was The Aztecs (bought for Air Lock alone). I would thinka lot of people on this forum might say the same thing ... even if the stories are released on Bluray, most people wouldn't necessarily bother with them again unless there's something very different included.
Game of thrones is the highest selling tv show.The classic dvd range does sell but some of them only sell less than 20k
Unroll a few inches of film and bung it on a flatbed scanner. Easy.
Lol, it's also the most heavily pirated show!
I wander how it can be both?
Not everybody can afford HBO/SKY every month. More people actually pirated it than watched on HBO. Some people illegally download then buy the dvd/blu ray legally as a way of supporting the show.
If the same percentage pirated it as bought it as for any other show but the amount of people watching it was much higher than other shows then it would, of necessity, be the most pirated and the best selling
HBO has a special deal with the cable operators. The knock-on effect is that — in the US — it can't sell content into any of the normal places like Netflix or Hulu. It has its own streaming service but it can't sell membership directly to consumers. Instead you have to subscribe to a cable operator, purchase the HBO package then use those credentials to get access to HBO's streaming, direct from HBO.
When HBO content is popular, it is popular in all markets. So it's popular:
However the barrier to legal streaming is absurdly high. As a result there is record piracy. However it replaces streams that people would have paid for, not physical products.
(EDIT: kudos to the Digital Spy team for still offering bullet points in their composer but creating a forum style that doesn't render them)
At this point, I'd be more surprised if it hadn't been found (especially when the rumours suggest that it's been found in 3 different places
Scot gave a great insight of the missing episodes. He and Puqui are the only 2 fans I believe.