As we inch closer and closer to the premiere of Season 2/15/etc — let’s take the joke as given from now on — we still basically know nothing about what’s going on behind the scenes at Disney. But why? Let’s look at what we do know and break things down a bit.

The newest piece of information is from Disney, who’s put out a press release detailing things about Doctor Who in preparation for the new season. In it is a detail about “Season 1” that we previously did not know.

Namely, that it was in the top five programs of the week each time an episode aired. Make no mistake, that’s a good thing. In fact, it flies in the face of all the doom and gloom being tossed around. 

One might say “oh, The Acolyte was also in the top five each week and they cancelled it.” Yes, they did, but that was a totally different circumstance. Whereas The Acolyte cost them around $28 million per episode, Who costs them around $3 million per episode on average. It is possibly one of the least expensive shows they have in the sci-fi category. Also, Disney owns Star Wars, so they chop what they need to wherever.

Now, Who making the top five each week it was on is great. One of the problems, though, is that the Who fans don’t seem to stick around and watch anything else Disney has to offer. 

Well, that’s not Doctor Who’s fault.

And as a side note: for those who would cite the ratings figures on the BBC, and the better figures on iPlayer, they mean nothing to Disney.

At a glance, with Doctor Who, Disney has an inexpensive, top-five show that won the younger demographics. That would appear to be a no-brainer for a renewal. So why haven’t they renewed? There’s obviously a reason.

It’s known that the plan in the beginning was that Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf would deliver their first season, and if things looked good, Disney would renew in the summer of 2024. Work would then begin on Season 3 and they’d be filming Season 3 starting sometime in January 2025, allegedly back to back with Season 4, thus ensuring that we’d get a season of Doctor Who each year through 2027 with no gap years.

But even with all the positive stats in the show’s favour, Disney has delayed and delayed their decision on the renewal. This has already caused massive trouble regarding the timetable for Season 3 and on. There will be at least one gap year, maybe two or more now.

Because of the renewal decision delay.

Back to “why”…

When companies are stalled in their dealings, that usually means they’re not in agreement about something. Somebody’s negotiating about something. They’re not going to go blabbing it all over the internet for several reasons. 

So we’re left wondering, what would Disney want? What does any streaming service want? 

CONTENT. It is the life blood of streaming, and the Gallifreyan elephant in the room is the Back Catalogue. 

Of course, I’m just speculating here, but this also seems like a bullseye. Disney wants the giant Doctor Who Back Catalogue. Of course they do. It’s entirely possible that it’s the sticking point with regards to the renewal.

If 60 years of Doctor Who were available on Disney +, I guarantee you that these subscribers would stick around as there’d be a lot more to watch.

So the ball would appear to be in the BBC’s court. The BBC would have to share the Back Catalogue with Disney. As of yet, they have not. But why?

We’ve talked before about the Beeb’s financial attitude. They’re quite frugal; on the plus side, they’ll take money from wherever they can get it, doesn’t matter who or where. 

They already have a deal with Warner’s MAX service where they host the entire new era. The rights deal in place with MAX expires on 27th July, 2025. That’s somewhat telling. This may be part of the reason for the delay. I’m unsure if the BBC can sell rights to more than one company at a time, but if not, this might partially explain the renewal delay.

The classic episodes are no longer free on Amazon Prime.

Then there are the rights issues with the classic stories. 

BritBox UK is believed to have now lost Classic Who, due to numerous rights issues that have popped up in recent years. Conflict with Anthony Coburn’s son regarding An Unearthly Child, and dealings with many other authors of classic stories have always been a quagmire that the show has never been able to free itself from. 

So back to the backroom discussions. 

For modern audiences, it’s not unreasonable to assume that the 13 seasons from the new era might be a good enough “get” for any streaming service. Perhaps that could be put on the table for Disney as a major offering once MAX loses their rights in July.

The entirety of the classic era — minus a few choice exceptions, again, due to rights — are all on iPlayer for the UK, but attempting to make a brand new deal to put them all on Disney would probably require massive renegotiations with all the different authors, estates, and current rights holders.

But a new deal would mean a hefty dollar amount from Disney for any era. While a deal for the new era would be much easier, perhaps the money brought in would possibly enough to offset the new demands from the rights holders.

So there we are. We await several announcements across the board, but now we do know that as far as Season 1 is concerned, it performed well on Disney and it’s cheap for them to produce. 

Season 1 of the new Doctor Who was, for all intents and purposes, a success for Disney. 

So that at least somewhat gets Russell off the hook. As controversial as some of the season was, the show did indeed perform like Disney hoped. It did its job. They can’t use that as the reason it was not renewed.

And if the deal is not renewed, I think it’s safe to say there were other reasons that we have so far been unaware of, but remember: CONTENT. Streaming services need content.

Since the “Disney Era” deal began back in 2023, many have just naturally assumed that there would be a bigger package deal in the offing, as a mere 26 episodes and nothing more is just chicken feed to any streaming service. Would the new era alone be enough to satisfy Disney?

Or are they holding out for the classic era, or just as much as they can get? Is it all red tape? Where exactly does Disney and the BBC stand, and what exactly do they want?

In the end, we’ll eventually get some answers. I hope we like them.