It's recently been announced that this year's season of Doctor Who (labeled as "Season 2") will begin on Saturday, April 12. Initially, the only official announcement regarding this date was during two rugby matches on Friday, February 21, but the release date has now been covered by the Doctor Who website.
Rather interestingly, the website also reveals the new time that episodes will be released. Last year, each episode of Season 1 was released at midnight in the UK on BBC iPlayer. For the rest of the world, the episodes were also released on Disney+ at exactly the same time. The episodes were later broadcast on BBC One the same day at varying times, usually between 6 and 7 pm UK time.
The midnight release was a controversial decision for much of the fandom. This was partly because midnight was seen as an inconvenient time for British audiences to watch the episode. Yes, they could technically wait until the episode was broadcast on BBC One, but in this day and age, the episode would've been easily spoiled on social media by then. The time was also seen as more convenient for US audiences. After all, midnight in the UK would be 7 pm ET, which is a far more convenient time to watch the show, especially for family audiences.
New time
As a result, it's not surprising that for Season 2, episodes will be released on BBC iPlayer and Disney+ at the new time of 8 am GMT. This decision is understandable. It's certainly a more reasonable time for UK audiences to watch the show than midnight, at least.
But it still has its drawbacks. 8 am GMT is 3 am ET, so it's a less convenient time for US audiences to immediately watch the show than before. And while it's undeniably more convenient for British audiences than midnight, it's still hard to imagine they'll be ready to watch it first thing in the morning. Honestly, Saturday teatime feels like such a vital part of Doctor Who's DNA.
UK fans can still watch the show between 6 pm and 7 pm on BBC One. But I can't help but feel that the ideal streaming time should be much closer to it. A worldwide release at 4 or even 5 pm UK time would be extremely ideal. It'll be close enough for UK audiences to still enjoy that "Saturday tea time" feeling, while allowing US audiences to enjoy the show at a more convenient time.
If Doctor Who continues to be released worldwide via BBC iPlayer and Disney+, I suspect the time episodes are released will continue to be an ongoing issue with future seasons. Of course, that's nothing new, not really. Ironically, time has always been an issue for Doctor Who - after all, due to Saturday night scheduling, it's often been difficult to guess exactly what time episodes will be broadcast from week to week. With the streaming method at least, fans know the earliest time that they can expect to watch the episodes every week. Convenient or not, there's something rather reassuring about a consistent time, at least.