Kate Kane: Here for the punching, less here for the broadcasting disputes. Photo : The CW

It’s sort of like how American English takes the letter “u” out of perfectly good words like it’s some kind of upstart revolutionary, but this time, it’s inverse, and the Brits are taking out...Batwoman?




Yes, while the U.S. gears up to watch the first episodes of the five-part Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover on the CW next week—three episodes from Supergirl, Batwoman, and The Flash will air this month, while the final two, from Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow, will air in January after the midseason break—the UK is preparing to only get...well, two of those.

While the Crisis episodes of Supergirl and Flash, as well as the eventual entries from Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow, will air on digital channel Sky One in the UK, for now, the Batwoman entry will remain unbroadcast. The reason for this isn’t as arcane as you might expect.


It’s not like it’s some weird U.S.-UK trade deal gone wrong (we get 90 percent of the DC/CW shows and half our actors play Marvel movie heroes, while you guys get James Corden in exchange), or written into the declaration of independence or what have you. The reason is pretty simple: Right now, no broadcaster in the UK has actually acquired the rights to air Batwoman. Currently, the other four DC shows from the CW broadcast exclusively on Sky One, but the broadcaster—coincidentally enough both it and its parent company are owned by American telecoms megacorp Comcast—has yet to pick up Batwoman.

Speaking to the Radio Times, a spokesperson for Sky confirmed that, despite the interconnected nature of Crisis tying together all these myriad DC properties, the threat of the multiverse being wiped out by the Anti-Monitor cannot compare to the villainy of broadcast rights. “Sky do not own the rights to broadcast Batwoman, so at present time there are no plans for it to air on Sky One,” the representative told the site. “We will, however, be showing the current seasons of Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow (and in 2020, Legends of Tomorrow) in full, including all crossover episodes for those series.”

Cor blimey, guv’nah! It seems then, legally at least, fans of the Arrowverse will be left twiddling their bat-thumbs if they want to get the full story when it comes to Crisis. Or maybe just be really confused when Kate Kane shows up and starts punching things alongside the rest of her superfriends.


Crisis begins in the U.S. with the next episode of Supergirl this Sunday, December 8.

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