{"id":499693,"date":"2026-02-23T22:37:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T22:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/499693\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T22:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T22:37:11","slug":"bbc-teases-potential-new-streaming-partner-for-doctor-who","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/499693\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC teases potential new streaming partner for Doctor Who"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Doctor Who<\/a> is set to return this year for a Christmas special<\/a>, its future beyond that is still up in the air following the end of the deal with Disney<\/a> – and, now, the director of BBC Drama has teased a potential new partner.<\/p>\n

The BBC announced last year that its deal with Disney had come to an end after partnering on 26 episodes of Doctor Who, which amounted to Ncuti Gatwa’s<\/a> two seasons and spin-off The War Between the Land and the Sea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the BBC has continually confirmed its commitment<\/a> to Doctor Who following the end of that deal, there are questions about how the show will now be funded.<\/p>\n

So, now that the BBC is set to partner with HBO on Richard Gadd<\/a> and Michaela Coel’s<\/a> new shows, Lindsay Salt, director of BBC drama, was asked whether that partnership could potentially extend to Doctor Who.<\/p>\n

\"Billie<\/p>\n

Billie Piper in Doctor Who episode The Reality War.\u00a0BBC<\/p>\n

She didn’t rule it out, telling Deadline<\/a>: “We\u2019ll wait and see how we figure it out. HBO have been great partners creatively. There\u2019s a lot of stuff that is changing out there.”<\/p>\n

Salt also re-emphasised the broadcaster’s commitment to Doctor Who, adding: “There are different ways of setting up a show. We just need to make sure we do it in the right way and make sure we take the right time to do it. Ultimately it\u2019s one of the BBC\u2019s most treasured brands, so it\u2019s not going anywhere.”<\/p>\n

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As for how the sci-fi could continue with a significantly lower budget? She told the outlet: “I managed to walk into this job when the co-pro market imploded and I\u2019ve learned a lot about the tenacity of producers and writers to make things at all budget levels. Things are getting funded in so many different ways now.”<\/p>\n

Story-wise, this year’s Christmas special has a lot to tackle following Gatwa’s exit from the show, with the Time Lord regenerating into returning star Billie Piper<\/a> at the end of the latest episode, The Reality War.<\/p>\n

Piper has, notably, not been confirmed as the new Doctor – so it seems there’s something more going on with her return.<\/p>\n

While not much is known about the plot of the festive special, longtime Doctor Who composer Murray Gold recently revealed that multiple scripts are being penned<\/a>, saying on the Half the Picture podcast:<\/a> “I know that Russell\u2019s written, I think, multiple versions depending on certain outcomes. So that\u2019s all I really know, and I\u2019m not sure [that] I\u2019m even supposed to know that.”<\/p>\n

Doctor Who will return to BBC One and BBC iPlayer this Christmas.<\/p>\n

Add Doctor Who to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app<\/a> \u2013 download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.<\/p>\n

Check out more of our Sci-fi<\/a> coverage or visit our TV Guide<\/a> and Streaming Guide<\/a> to find out what’s on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Doctor Who is set to return this year for a Christmas special, its future beyond that is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":["post-499693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}