DOCTOR WHO: BBC TO EXPERIMENT WITH AI TO PROMOTE THE WHONIVERSE CONTENT
The BBC have announced it is to experiment with 'Generative AI' for the promotion of existing Doctor Who content available as part of The Whoniverse on BBC iPlayer.
David Housden, Head of Media Inventory at the BBC said: "Experimentation is at the heart of how we approach marketing at the BBC. Testing and learning on how we let audiences know what BBC content is most relevant to them and we know they might love underpins our digital marketing strategy...
"However, experimentation in marketing typically requires more time spent on the creative work to make extra assets. Generative AI offers a great opportunity to speed up making the extra assets to get more experiments live for more content that we are trying to promote...
"We’re going to take it one step a time, starting simple and learning as we go. We have chosen to start with Doctor Who, as it is a joint content priority for both BBC Public Service UK and BBC Studios marketing teams. There’s a rich variety of content in the Whoniverse collection on iPlayer to test and learn with, and Doctor Who thematically lends itself to AI which is a bonus...
"We will be creating human-written marketing copy for a Doctor Who push notification, email subject line and in the promotional rail on BBC Search - then we will be using generative AI to suggest copy variations which are then reviewed and approved by our marketing team before being shown to the audience. Their success will be measured by click- rates, open-rates, and post-impression conversion-rates across each channel."
Ahead of its premiere on BBC One and Disney+ this May, here's a rundown of the cast members appearing in Season 1 of Doctor Who, the first full series starring Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor and Millie Gibson and Ruby Sunday.
UNIT is back in full force with Jemma Redgrave returning as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, and newcomer Shirley Ann Bingham, played by Ruth Madeley, also returning for the next series.
Anita Dobson is expected to return mysterious Mrs Flood, along with Michelle Greenidge and Angela Winter as Ruby's adopted mother and grandmother respectively.
Aneurin Barnard joined the series as the mysterious Roger ap Gwilliam. Also appearing in the next series in unknown roles are Jack Forsyth-Noble, Mollie Kent, Sophie Ablett, Bhav Joshi, Eilidh Loan, Pete Machale, Miles Yekinni and Hemi Yeroham.
Last April is was revealed that award-winning actress, singer and two-time RuPaul’s Drag Race winner, Jinkx Monsoon will appear in the new series of Doctor Who as "the Doctor’s most powerful enemy yet". Jinkx joins Doctor Who after completing her sell out run on Broadway, where she made her highly-anticipated debut as Matron ‘Mama’ Morton in Broadway’s longest-running show, Chicago.
Award winning star of stage and screen Jonathan Groff is set to appear in the new series of Doctor Who in a key role. Jonathan shot to fame when he landed the role of Jessie in musical comedy drama Glee. He has since been internationally celebrated for his work on-screen, from starring as Eric in the box office hit Knock at the Cabin, to playing Holden Ford in the critically acclaimed series Mindhunter.
Award-winning actress Indira Varma is crossing galaxies as she joins the new series of Doctor Who. First entering the world of Doctor Who as Suzie Costello in Russell T Davies’ spin-off series Torchwood, Indira now steps aboard the TARDIS in her new mysterious role as the Duchess.
Star of stage and screen Bonnie Langford will once again reprise her legendary role as Melanie Bush as she returns to Doctor Who, this time starring alongside Ncuti Gatwa, who plays the Fifteenth Doctor in the new series.
Bonnie first entered the world of Doctor Who in 1986 as the companion to the Sixth and Seventh Doctors played by Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, before returning in a cameo role in Jodie Whittaker’s final episode as the Thirteenth Doctor.
Reprising her role from the 60th anniversary specials will be Yasmin Finney as Rose Noble. Lenny Rush, best know for his breakout role in Daisy May Cooper's Am I Being Unreasonable, will also appear in the next series in an unknown role.
Doctor Who returns this May on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK and Disney+ in the rest of the world.