PERRYMAN - The transmedia strategies of the BBC

Doctor Who and the Convergence of Media : A Case Study in `Transmedia Storytelling'
Neil Perryman
Convergence 2008 14: 21
DOI: 10.1177/1354856507084417

PDF

Abstract

The British science fiction series Doctor Who embraces convergence culture on an unprecedented scale, with the BBC currently using the series to trial a plethora of new technologies, including: mini-episodes on mobile phones, podcast commentaries, interactive red-button adventures, video blogs, companion programming, and ‘fake’ metatextual websites.

In 2006 the BBC launched two spin-off series, Torchwood (aimed at an exclusively adult audience) and The Sarah Jane Smith Adventures (for 11-15-year-olds), and what was once regarded as an embarrassment to the Corporation now spans the media landscape as a multi-format colossus.

This article critically explores many of the transmedia strategies the BBC has employed in relaunching this property.

Has it resulted in a richer and more entertaining experience, or is it merely an economic exercise in merchandising and branding?

Can these media really work together to create a coherent and satisfying whole?


Conclusion

Doctor Who is a franchise that has actively embraced both the technical and cultural shifts associated with media convergence since it returned to our television screens in 2005. 

Its producers have attempted to provide extra-value content and narrative complexity for both a hardcore fanbase and a mainstream audience by deploying a series of evolving and challenging storytelling strategies across a wide range of media platforms, and while these strategies have occasionally fallen short (for example, the mobile TARDISodes failed to find an audience), other experiments have resulted in some groundbreaking successes; namely, the interactive adventures, webcasts, online games and podcasts. 

The cultura memes employed by both the show and the metatextual websites have helped to sustain consumer loyalty and enjoyment, while even the show itself has presented the aesthetics of media convergence as plot points, with alien plans revolving around ‘big red buttons’.

The result is that the BBC has successfully created a transmedia world that supports demographic-spanning spin-offs that straddle media platforms and storytelling techniques. 

It allows passive audiences to simply sit back and enjoy the parent show in blissful solation, while at the same time it gives active, migratory and participatory audiences opportunities to engage in a rich, and extended multimedia experience unparalleled in British broadcasting at the time of writing. 

It has also illustrated to the BBC how trans-media storytelling makes sound economic sense, not only in terms of ancillary merchandising and branding, but in production costs as well, as Mark Thompson, the Corporation’s Director General, confirmed in his recent keynote speech (2007):

The (creative) factory makes even better economic sense when you add Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. In future, major projects should extend not just across TV, the web, radio, and mobile but through multiple windows across time and across different business models.

A factory that can fashion a single world under a collective roof to create distinctive -yet linked - programming, spanning platforms, audiences and channels is now regarded by the BBC’s hierarchy as a template for all major television commissioning decisions in the future.

As the Doctor himself might say, the future has already happened . . .