The BBC has commissioned an exclusive series of Doctor Who audio
dramas in a bid to drive traffic to its growing cult TV online
service.
Following the success of a one-off pilot drama in July, which featured
actor Sylvester McCoy as the sci-fi character, the BBC has commissioned
15 new 10-minute episodes for use exclusively on the broadcaster's
bbc.co.uk/cult service. The original pilot episode was downloaded 1.5
million times.
Martin Trickey, commissioning editor for entertainment online, said the
new series, which will be streamed over the web rather than downloadable
in an effort to reduce bootlegging, will act as a draw to its
increasingly popular cult TV service.
He said: "I think it's brought to light the whole cult web site. We want
this to bring more people to the cult site itself."
Trickey also said that hosting the new series exclusively online would
help the BBC re-invigorate the Doctor Who brand.
"The main reason we're doing it online is that we can take radio content
and enhance it with images and enable people to access it over a period
of time," he said. "It hits the right type of people as a lot of these
fans are online. We want to introduce Doctor Who to a brand new
generation."
Although Trickey could not give user figures for the cult site, he
claimed that the service was: "almost comparable with the EastEnders web
site".
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