I have it on good authority that Australia won't receive the first episode on their screens until April 30th. Have the Beeb suddenly changed their minds? Will the Beeb, then, surprise them by releasing the season opener to them on the same day as us here in the UK?
Hrrrm... not sure what the situation is in Australia, but here in the States, we do get the first episode of the new series today (the 23rd), same day as the folks in the UK. Of course we're a few hours behind them, which means I may still bittorrent it anyway... but at least BBC America isn't lagging 3-4 weeks behind the UK, like they have in past years.
Yeah you are right about that http://www.abc.net.au/tv/watchnow/?id=doctorwho. But the good thing about Doctor Who in Oz is that the ABC put most of their shows up on their iview platform which means it can be watched online for a week after the broadcast. Handy for me as I always seem to miss the show on tv.
I expect the tabloids would have fun fanning outrage if a prominent licence fee payer---funded TV show was shown in a foreign country before it was shown in the UK.
If this experiment is a success, maybe they'll extend it in the future.