Was Doctor Who's move to BBC iPlayer a good idea?

Doctor Who fans will have noticed that the new series has adopted an unconventional release strategy. Each week, the latest episode arrives on BBC iPlayer at midnight on Friday night, so it's ready to watch first thing on Saturday morning — hours before its traditional evening broadcast slot.

We've now seen the first four episodes of the new series and we've fallen head over heels in love with Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor and Millie Gibson as mysterious companion Ruby Sunday. But is the BBC iPlayer release gamble working?

Well, that rather depends on how you measure success.

What are the Doctor Who TV ratings for series 14?

If you were to just look at overnight TV ratings, you'd be inclined to think that Doctor Who's latest run has been a complete disaster. All four episodes so far have achieved overnight figures below three million viewers, with last week's folk horror masterpiece 73 Yards securing the best figure to date of 2.62 million viewers.

Read more: Doctor Who's 73 Yards wins biggest ratings of season so far (Digital Spy)

However, these low numbers aren't especially surprising for series 14. After all, by the time each episode of Doctor Who makes its TV debut at around 7pm, it has been available on BBC iPlayer for 19 hours. Many of the most devoted viewers — the ones who would usually be huddled around the TV waiting for it to start — might have watched it several times by then.

So, for more accurate information, we must turn to the "consolidated ratings". These include viewers on catch-up and via recordings for the first seven days after the release.

Unfortunately, these don't make happy reading either. Series 14 opener Space Babies was watched by 4.01 million viewers in its first seven days, falling to 3.91 million for The Devil's Chord, and even further to 3.58 million for Boom. Seven-day numbers for 73 Yards aren't yet available.

These are not big numbers. For context, in 2020, 4.6 million people watched the final episode of series 12, which was an all-time low number since the show's 2005 revival. The 2022 special Legend of the Sea Devils sent things plummeting even lower, scoring just 3.47 million viewers.

Read more: Jodie Whittaker says Doctor Who was 'everything she wanted it to be' (BANG Showbiz)

It's a precipitous fall from the 2023 anniversary specials, which averaged around seven million viewers. In terms of viewership numbers, Doctor Who has never been this consistently poor. But does it actually mean anything?

Do bad ratings for Doctor Who even matter any more?

Well, for starters, we have to factor in the way TV viewing has changed in the 20 years that the new version of Doctor Who has graced our screens. Live audiences are now a tiny fraction of a show's total viewership and we definitely need to factor in the way some people enjoy saving episodes up for a future binge-watch — not accounted for in those seven-day consolidated figures.

Read more: Doctor Who's Billie Piper to return as Rose in spin-off adventure (Digital Spy)

TV audiences are simply smaller than they were 20 years ago. Telly now has to compete with so many other things. So actually, a more reliable figure to judge a TV show's ratings is their audience share. In this arena, series 14 is faring far better. Space Babies got a 32.4% audience share, while The Devil's Chord managed 28.5%. There was a slight dip in the 19.8% for Boom, but 73 Yards was back up at 24.8%.

These audience share numbers are similar to those of the Matt Smith era and early part of Peter Capaldi's tenure, marking an uptick from the final years of Jodie Whittaker. So maybe the sky isn't falling?

It's also significant to note that the British TV market isn't the be-all and end-all for Doctor Who any more. Due to the show's new partnership with Disney, each episode is now available to stream in the United States via Disney+ alongside its UK release. A few million missing British viewers are small-fry compared to the potential tens of millions who could tune in from the other side of the Atlantic.

Read more: Russell T Davies reassures Doctor Who fans about show's Disney future (Yahoo Entertainment)

So while the embrace of the BBC iPlayer release model has undoubtedly reduced Doctor Who's viewing figures in the UK, it's not too much of an issue. The powers that be are trying new approaches to get the show to audiences when and how they want it and, with the might of Disney behind them, there's plenty of opportunity for experimentation.

And let's face it, the show is more fun and inventive than it has been in years. Whether anyone is watching or not, Doctor Who fans are eating well.

Doctor Who airs on BBC One on Saturdays, with new episodes on BBC iPlayer the same day.