So Doctor Who has got in his Tardis and fucked off back to the BBC.

The sci-fi series has suddenly disappeared from all streaming services, including the likes of Netflix and Hulu.

The disappearance has led to rumours the Beeb is looking to launch its own premium streaming service to rival the likes of Netflix and Amazon.

Let’s take a second to think about what that service will look like. iPlayer. It will look like BBC iPlayer. Only it’ll be available outside the UK and people will have to pay for it.

It’s a very good move from the largest broadcaster in the world. The most surprising thing is the fact the BBC have taken so long to do it.

They have a ready made vehicle in their existing (free) streaming service, available exclusively to Brits. Even if they chose to launch something entirely separate, that experience will be tremendously valuable.

The beloved BBC also desperately needs to look for new sources of revenue. They’re currently facing a £150m shortfall. The license fee isn’t particularly popular with the Tories.

And a full back-catalogue of the likes of Doctor Who, Top Gear and Sherlock sounds like a pretty attractive offering for around $10 a month.

Or does it?

When Netflix’s streaming service started gaining momentum a few years ago, I remember my first thought. ‘£6 a month for all that content? I’m currently paying ten times that for TV. Bargain!’

Since then, competitors have popped up left right and centre. It also seems like every broadcasting company is launching — or will launch — their own streaming service at some point in the next few years.

The BBC, Disney, Sky, HBO. Even the likes of Spotify are dabbling in the market.

The market has suddenly become very crowded.

How long before I need ten different subscriptions to watch all the shows I want? How long until getting all my content will cost about the same as cable?

I don’t know the answer to that question. But I do know as soon as it happens, a now more tech-savvy audience will turn straight to piracy. And the industry bigwigs will sit around and wonder what happened.