Papua New Guinea

PAPUA NEW GUINEA is part of the New Guinea island group to the north of Australia.

Profile

Country Number (N/A)
Region	Australasia/Asia
Language/s	English

Television Stations / Channels

Papua New Guinea did not commence its own locally-based commercial television service until 2008.

Some 20 years prior to that, however, television broadcasts were received by relay via one of the AUSSAT satellites, launched into orbit in August 1985. The ABC commenced satellite transmissions via AUSSAT from 26 January 1986.

Two years later, two further stations were operating via satellite:

• Niugini Television Network (NTN), established and owned by the New South Wales, Newcastle-based station NBN Television, which was broadcasting by February 1987
• EM TV, an affiliate of Australia's Network Nine/Channel Nine, which began broadcasting in PNG from July 1987

DOCTOR WHO IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Peter Cushing and the Daleks

The Dalek movies were shown at various theatres across Papua New Guinea. Only a handful of listings appear in Port Moresby's Papua New Guinea Post-Courier.

The first film was shown in Morobe, a town north of Ports Moresby, at the Theatre Lae, Wednesday to Friday only, 27-29 August 1969 in a double-bill with Rotten to the Core (1965).

Both films were later shown at the Palms Theatre in Rabaul, a small township in the East New Britain Province on the island of New Britain. The first film was shown in a double-bill with the 1958 adventure film Twilight for the Gods on Monday, 30 March 1970 (both films had a "G" rating), and the sequel a year later on Wednesday, 21 April 1971 paired with Two Weeks in September (1967).

First film in Rabaul; PNG Post-Courier 25 March 1970

Second film in Rabaul; PNG Post-Courier 6 April 1971

It is most likely that both films were distributed to and shown in other cities and towns around the island group. (Curiously, although this is a Port Moresby newspaper, no listings could be found for theatres in Ports Moresby itself …)

BBC Records

Times of PNG, 5-11 January 1986, Monday-Thursday, 6.35pm (Although not stated, these listings are for ABC, and are for The Two Doctors and The Mark of the Rani)

Times of PNG, 9 January 1988 (Although not stated, this Saturday listing is for The Androids of Tara omnibus)

Times of PNG, showing listings for EMTV and ABC: 24-30 March 1988 (This Saturday listing is for the Meglos omnibus)

Strictly speaking, Doctor Who was not sold per se to Papua New Guinea, and the country is therefore not named in any BBC Records.

However, at a public appearance in New Zealand in October 2010, actress Sophie Aldred (Ace) said she had received residual payments for sales to Papua New Guinea, which does suggest that some form of clearances specifically for the island were paid for outside the ABC.

Transmission

The ABC commenced official transmissions via AUSSAT starting in 26 January 1986. The first episodes of Doctor Who to be seen in Papua New Guinea would have been Revelation of the Daleks parts 3 and 4.

In the UK fanzine The Frame (number 9; February 1989), actress Karen Gledhill (Allison, from Remembrance of the Daleks) recalled that while enjoying a month's holiday in Papua New Guinea "this time last year" she saw a Tom Baker episode on TV at 3.00 in the afternoon. She then goes on to say that her first job following her return to the UK was for Doctor Who. Filming on "Remembrance" commenced in late March 1988, so this holiday would have been late 1987 / early 1988. What she saw would have been one of the ABC's Saturday afternoon Omnibus editions of a season 15, season 16 or season 17 story. (The timeslots for the Omnibuses were actually 1.00pm to 2.35pm / 2.45pm.)

• SEE THE LISTINGS FOR AUSTRALIA 1986 FOR FURTHER DETAILS

TV listings

The TV listings shown here have been obtained from the Times of Papua New Guinea. The earliest paper available covered 5-11 January 1986.

Papers from 1988 had TV listings for all three stations, NTN, EM TV and ABC.

None of the listings had episode titles, but we can identify what the episodes are from the equivalent Australian listings.

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