Planet Earth (2006 TV Series)

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''Planet Earth'' is a 2006 British television series produced by the

BBC Natural History Unit The BBC Studios Natural History Unit (NHU) is a department of BBC Studios that produces television, radio and online content with a natural history or wildlife theme. It is best known for its highly regarded nature documentaries, including '' ...

. Five years in the making, it was the most expensive

nature documentary A nature documentary or wildlife documentary is a genre of documentary film or series about animals, plants, or other non-human living creatures, usually concentrating on video taken in their natural habitat but also often including footage of tr ...

series ever commissioned by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

and also the first to be filmed in high definition. The series received multiple awards, including four

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

s, a

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

, and an award from the

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

. ''Planet Earth'' premiered on 5 March 2006 in the United Kingdom on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

, and by June 2007 had been shown in 130 countries. The original version was narrated by

David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural histor ...

, whilst some international versions used alternative narrators. The series has eleven episodes, each of which features a global overview of a different

biome A biome () is a biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate. Biomes may span more than one continent. Biome is a broader ...

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

. At the end of each fifty-minute episode, a ten-minute featurette takes a behind-the-scenes look at the challenges of filming the series. Ten years later, the BBC announced a six-part sequel had been commissioned, titled ''

Planet Earth II ''Planet Earth II'' is a 2016 British nature documentary series produced by the BBC as a sequel to ''Planet Earth'', which was broadcast in 2006. The series is presented and narrated by Sir David Attenborough with the main theme music composed ...

'', the first television series produced by the BBC in ultra-high-definition ( 4K). David Attenborough returned as narrator and presenter. A second sequel, ''Planet Earth III'' is currently announced and planned to air in 2022.

Background

In 2001 the BBC broadcast ''

The Blue Planet ''The Blue Planet'' is a British nature documentary series created and produced by the BBC. It premiered on 12 September 2001 in the United Kingdom. It is narrated by David Attenborough. Described as "the first ever comprehensive series on t ...

'', a series on the natural history of the world's oceans. It received critical acclaim, high viewing figures, audience appreciation ratings, and many awards. It also became a hugely profitable global brand, eventually being sold to 150 countries worldwide. Feedback showed that audiences particularly liked the epic scale, the scenes of new and unusual species and the cinematic quality of the series. Programme commissioners were keen for a follow-up, so

Alastair Fothergill Alastair David William Fothergill (born 10 April 1960) is a British producer of nature documentaries for television and cinema. He is the series producer of the series ''The Blue Planet'' (2001), ''Planet Earth'' (2006) and the co-director of ...

decided that the Natural History Unit should repeat the formula with a series looking at the whole planet. The idea for ''Planet Earth'' was born, and the series was commissioned by

Lorraine Heggessey Lorraine Sylvia Heggessey (born 16 November 1956) is a British television producer and executive. From 2000 until 2005, she was the first woman to be Controller of BBC One, the primary television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation. ...

, then Controller of BBC One, in January 2002. A

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

version of ''Planet Earth'' was commissioned alongside the television series, repeating the successful model established with ''The Blue Planet'' and its companion film, ''Deep Blue''. ''

'' was released around the world from 2007 to 2009. There was also another accompanying television series, '' Planet Earth: The Future'', which looked at the

environmental problems Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on t ...

facing some of the

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

and habitats featured in the main series in more detail.

Broadcast

''Planet Earth'' premiered on BBC One on 5 March 2006 in the United Kingdom. On the same day or in the subsequent weeks or months, the series also began airing in several other countries. International broadcasters carrying Planet Earth include Australia on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

and

GEM A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, a ...

, Canada on CBC and CTV, New Zealand on

Prime A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

, the Philippines on

GMA Network GMA Network (Global Media Arts or simply GMA) is a Philippine free-to-air television and radio network. It is the flagship property of publicly traded GMA Network, Inc. Its first broadcast on television was on October 29, 1961. GMA Network (f ...

and

GMA News TV GMA News TV (GNTV; visually rendered in its logo in all capital letters as GMA NEWS TV) is a 24-hour Philippine-based international pay television channel owned by Citynet Network Marketing and Productions Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of GM ...

, the U.S. on

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

Velocity Velocity is the directional speed of an object in motion as an indication of its rate of change in position as observed from a particular frame of reference and as measured by a particular standard of time (e.g. northbound). Velocity is a ...

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

Animal Planet Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily dev ...

Destination America Destination America is an American cable television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. The network carries programming focused on the culture of the United States—including food, lifestyles, a ...

and

BBC America BBC America is an American basic cable network that is jointly owned by BBC Studios and AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary ser ...

British television

The episodes are each an hour in length, comprising the main programme and a 10-minute featurette called ''Planet Earth Diaries'', which details the filming of a particular event. In the UK, ''Planet Earth'' was split into two parts, broadcast in spring and autumn 2006. The first five episodes premiered on

at 9:00 pm on Sundays, beginning on 5 March 2006. The programmes were repeated the following Saturday in an early evening slot on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

. Along with its 2005 dramatisation of ''

Bleak House ''Bleak House'' is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a 20-episode serial between March 1852 and September 1853. The novel has many characters and several sub-plots, and is told partly by the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson, and ...

'', the

...
selected ''Planet Earth'' for its trial of high-definition broadcasts. The opening episode was its first-ever scheduled programme in the format, shown 27 May 2006 on the

BBC HD BBC HD was a 24-hour high-definition television channel provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007 before its discontinuation on 26 March 2013. It broadcast ...

channel. The first episode in the autumn series, ''

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

'', received its first public showing at the

Edinburgh International Television Festival The Edinburgh International Television Festival is an annual media event held in the United Kingdom each August which brings together delegates from the television and digital world to debate the major issues facing the industry. The Festival ...

on 26 August 2006. It was shown on a giant screen in Conference Square. The remaining episodes were broadcast from 5 November 2006 in the same primetime

slot, following a further repeat run of the spring programmes on

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

. The autumn episodes were broadcast simultaneously on

and were repeated on

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

the following week. Besides being

's featured ''One to Watch'' programme of the day, ''Planet Earth'' was heavily trailed on the BBC's television and radio channels both before and during its run. The music that was featured in the

...
trailers for the series is the track "

Hoppípolla "Hoppípolla" () is a song by Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós from their 2005 album '' Takk...''. It was released as the album's second single on 28 November 2005. The song title is a univerbation of (the ''-a'' in ''hoppa'' is not pronou ...

" from the album '' Takk...'' by Icelandic

post-rock Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...

band

Sigur Rós Sigur Rós () is an Icelandic post-rock band from Reykjavík, active since 1994. The band comprises singer and guitarist Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson, bassist Georg Hólm, and keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson. Known for their ethereal sound, fron ...

. Following the advertisements, interest was so widespread that the single was re-released. In the United States, the series was promoted using "The Time Has Come" from

trailer music Trailer music (a subset of production music) is the background music used for film previews, which is not always from the film's soundtrack. The purpose of this music is to complement, support and integrate the sales messaging of the mini-movie t ...

company Epic Score, composed by Gabriel Shadid and Tobias Marberger. The

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

trailers initially used ''Jupiter: The Bringer of Jollity'' from

Gustav Holst Gustav Theodore Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite ''The Planets'', he composed many other works across a range ...

's orchestral suite ''

The Planets ''The Planets'', Op. 32, is a seven- movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1917. In the last movement the orchestra is joined by a wordless female chorus. Each movement of the suite is name ...

'', but later reverted to "

International

The

...
pre-sold the series to several overseas broadcasters, including the

for the United States, the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

, the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

China Central Television China Central Television (CCTV) is a Chinese state- and political party-owned broadcaster controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Its 50 different channels broadcast a variety of programing to more than one billion viewers in six lan ...

, WDR for Germany, Discovery Channel for

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Prime Television Prime7, formerly Prime Television and other names, was an Australian television network. Prime Television launched on 17 March 1962 as '' CBN-8'' in Orange, and later expanded to cover regional New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Cap ...

for New Zealand, and C1R for Russian broadcasts. The series was eventually sold to 130 countries.''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...

'': 4–10 November 2006 On 25 March 2007, the series began its run on American television on the

Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discovery ...

network, premiering on the

and

Discovery HD Theater Motor Trend is an American sports television network owned by Motor Trend Group, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit. It primarily broadcasts automotive-themed programming, including motorsports events. It was or ...

. There were a number of revisions to the original British programme. Actress and conservationist

Sigourney Weaver Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver (; born October 8, 1949) is an American actress. A figure in science fiction and popular culture, she has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Gram ...

was brought in to replace

as narrator, as it was thought her familiarity to American audiences would attract more viewers. The Discovery programmes also used a slightly different script to the British original. The series was broadcast on Sundays in one 3-hour block followed by four 2-hour blocks. The ''Planet Earth Diaries'' segments were not shown immediately after each episode, but collectively in ''Planet Earth: The Filmmakers' Story'', a two-hour special which was broadcast after the series had finished its initial network run. Edited versions were later broadcast on

The Science Channel Science Channel (often simply branded as Science; abbreviated to SCI) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel features programming focusing on science related to wilderness survival, engineering, manu ...

, and

Planet Green Destination America is an American cable television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. The network carries programming focused on the culture of the United States—including food, lifestyles, a ...

. In Canada, the series did not air on the Canadian Discovery Channel, as it is owned by CTV and the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

rights were exclusively sold to the CBC.

Episodes

''Planet Earth: The Future''

The latter episodes were supplemented by ''Planet Earth: The Future'', a series of three 60-minute films that highlight the conservation issues surrounding some of the featured species and environments. The programmes are narrated by Simon Poland and the series producer was Fergus Beeley. The series began transmission on

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

after the ninth episode, "Shallow Seas".

Feature film

Alongside the commissioning of the television series,

BBC Worldwide BBC Worldwide Ltd. was the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in January 1995. The company monetises BBC brands, selling BBC and other British programming for broadcas ...

and GreenLight Media secured financing for a US$15 million film version of ''Planet Earth''. This followed the earlier success of ''Deep Blue'', the BBC's 2003 theatrical nature documentary which used re-edited footage from ''The Blue Planet''. The film was co-directed by

and

Mark Linfield Mark Linfield (born 6 June 1968) is a British writer, producer and director of nature documentaries for cinema and television. He is best known for his work with the BBC Natural History Unit as a producer of two episodes of the television series ...

and produced by Alix Tidmarsh and Sophokles Tasioulis. Only 30% of the footage shown in ''Earth'' is new, with the remainder being reworked from the television series to suit the narrative of the film. David Attenborough was replaced as narrator by high-profile actors:

Patrick Stewart Sir Patrick Stewart (born 13 July 1940) is an English actor who has a career spanning seven decades in various stage productions, television, film and video games. He has been nominated for Olivier, Tony, Golden Globe, Emmy, and Screen Actor ...

for the UK market and

James Earl Jones James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is an American actor. He has been described as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile" actors for his performances in film, television, and theater, and "one of the greatest actors in America ...

for the United States. ''Earth'' had its worldwide premiere in September 2007 at the

San Sebastián International Film Festival The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; es, Festival Internacional de San Sebastián, eu, Donostia Zinemaldia) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spanish city of Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in th ...

San Sebastián San Sebastian, officially known as Donostia–San Sebastián (names in both local languages: ''Donostia'' () and ''San Sebastián'' ()) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the Basque Country (autonomous community), B ...

, Spain, in Basque Country.

Lionsgate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...

released the film in several international markets over the following year. In the United States, it became the first film to be released by

Disneynature Disneynature is an independent film studio that specializes in the production of nature documentary films for The Walt Disney Studios. The production company was founded on April 21, 2008, and is headquartered in Paris, France. The company's n ...

, the

Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

's new nature documentary arm. When released on

Earth Day Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EarthDay.org (formerly Earth Day Network) including 1 b ...

2009 it set the record for the highest opening weekend gross for a nature documentary, and went on to become the third highest grossing documentary of all time. It has grossed more than $108 million worldwide; in the nature documentary genre, only ''

March of the Penguins ''March of the Penguins'' (French ''La Marche de l'empereur'' ; ) is a 2005 French feature-length nature documentary directed and co-written by Luc Jacquet, and co-produced by Bonne Pioche and the National Geographic Society. The documentary dep ...

'' has achieved greater box-office success.

Reception

Critical reception

''Planet Earth'' received widespread critical acclaim. On review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the miniseries has an approval rating of 95% based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 9/10. The critical consensus reads "Planet Earth weaves innovative camera techniques and patient observation to deliver viewers an astounding glimpse of the world's perils and wonders, capturing jaw-dropping scenery and animals on both an epic and intimate scale." ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine's

James Poniewozik James "Jim" Poniewozik (; born July 12, 1968) is an American journalist and television critic. He is the chief TV critic for ''The New York Times''. Earlier in his career, he wrote ''Time'' magazine's ''Tuned In'' column for 16 years. Early life ...

named it one of the Top 10 New TV Series of 2007, ranking it at No. 4. In 2019, ''Planet Earth'' and its sequel were ranked 72nd on ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

s list of the 100 best TV shows of the 21st century.

Accolades

Jeff Hasler at the 67th Annual Peabody Awards for Planet Earth

''Planet Earth: From Pole to Pole'' won the Science and Natural History award at the

Programme Awards in 2007. The RTS also awarded it a Judge's Award and a Photography Award at its Craft and Design Awards. The series picked up two awards from the

Broadcasting Press Guild The Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG) is a British association of journalists dedicated to the topic of general media issues. History The Guild was established in 1974 as a breakaway of The Critics' Circle. Currently it groups over 100 staff and fr ...

for Best Documentary Series and Innovation in Broadcasting, and won Best Documentary Series at the 2007 Broadcast Awards. At the 2007

BAFTA Television Awards The BAFTA TV Awards, or British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the BAFTA. They have been awarded annually since 1955. Background The first-ever Awards, given in 1955, consisted of six categories. Until ...

, ''Planet Earth'' was nominated in the Specialist Factual and Pioneer Audience Award categories, but lost out to ''Nuremberg: Goering's Last Stand'' and ''

Life on Mars The possibility of life on Mars is a subject of interest in astrobiology due to the planet's proximity and similarities to Earth. To date, no proof of past or present life has been found on Mars. Cumulative evidence suggests that during the ...

'' respectively. It received three nominations at the BAFTA Television Craft Awards later the same year. George Fenton's original score won him Soundtrack Composer of the Year at the 2007

Classical BRIT Awards The Classic BRIT Awards (previously Classical BRIT Awards) are an annual awards ceremony held in the United Kingdom covering aspects of European classical music, classical and Classical crossover, crossover music, and are the equivalent of popu ...

. Planet Earth was also nominated for the NTA for Most popular Factual program but lost to ''

Top Gear Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...

'' (''

Supernanny ''Supernanny'' is a British reality television programme about parents struggling with their children's behaviour, mealtime, potty training, etc. The show features professional nanny Jo Frost, who devotes each episode to helping a family wh ...

'' and '' Bad Lad's Army: Officer Class'' were also nominated). ''Planet Earth'' was recognised by the American television industry, collecting the award for Nonfiction Series at the

59th Primetime Emmy Awards The 59th Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 16, 2007, honoring the best in U.S. prime time television programming at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was televised live on Fox at 8:00 p.m. ...

in September 2007 and winning a further three prizes in technical categories at the

Creative Arts Emmy Award The Creative Arts Emmys are a class of Emmy Awards presented in recognition of technical and other similar achievements in American television programming. They are commonly awarded to behind-the-scenes personnel such as production designers, set ...

s. It also collected two awards from the

Television Critics Association The Television Critics Association (TCA) is a group of approximately 200 United States and Canadian television critics, journalists and columnists who cover television programming for newspapers, magazines and web publications. The TCA accepts app ...

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in July 2007 and a

in April 2008.67th Annual Peabody Awards
May 2008. The series was also fêted at wildlife film festivals around the globe, collected multiple prizes at the Wildscreen Festival 2006, the International Wildlife Film Festival 2007 and the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival 2007.

Awards and nominations

Audience response

The credentials of the filmmakers, the size of the production, a high-profile marketing campaign and a primetime BBC One timeslot all resulted in ''Planet Earth'' attracting large audiences when it debuted in the UK in March 2006. The first episode, "From Pole to Pole", was watched by more people than any natural history programme since Attenborough and Fothergill's previous series, ''The Blue Planet'', in 2001. The first five episodes drew an average audience of 11.4 million viewers, including the early evening repeats, outperforming even ''The Blue Planet''. When the series returned to British screens after a six-month break, it remained popular but viewing figures did not reach the same levels. The final six episodes attracted an average audience of 6.8 million viewers, appreciably lower than the spring episodes, but still higher than BBC One's average for the timeslot. The BBC's 2007 Annual Report revealed that the series "received the highest audience appreciation score of any British programme on TV this year". In the United States, ''Planet Earth'' drew equally impressive ratings when it premiered on Discovery and Discovery HD Theater on 25 March 2007. The first three episodes (screened back to back) averaged 5.72 million viewers with a peak of 6.07 million viewers, giving the network its third highest audience ever. It was also the most watched Discovery programme since '' The Flight That Fought Back'' in 2005.

Sequel

In February 2016, the BBC announced a six-part sequel had been commissioned, titled ''Planet Earth II'', for release in late 2016, with Sir David Attenborough returning as narrator and presenter. As with the 2006 series, the trailer features the track 'Hoppipolla' by Icelandic group Sigur Ros.

Merchandise

The popularity of the television series around the world translated into strong sales of associated ''Planet Earth'' merchandise. In the United States, it became the fastest and bestselling documentary

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

in Discovery Channel's history, and the high-definition (HD) discs generated US$3.2 million in sales in just two months. By the end of 2007, U.S. sales had topped 3 million units, making it the highest-grossing HD title and one of the top ten DVD titles of the year. In addition, the brand was licensed to other companies to produce children's books, calendars, a board game, jigsaws, stationery, cards, and more.

DVD

A five-disc DVD box set of the complete series (BBCDVD1883) was released in the UK for Regions 2 and 4 (

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

) on 27 November 2006 by

2 entertain 2 Entertain (stylized as 2 , entertain) is a British video and music publisher founded in September 2004 by the merger of BBC Video and Video Collection International in 2004. Under CEO Richard Green, the company operated as a joint venture b ...

. It is presented in 5.1-channel

Dolby Digital Dolby Digital, originally synonymous with Dolby AC-3, is the name for what has now become a family of audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. Formerly named Dolby Stereo Digital until 1995, the audio compression is lossy ...

surround sound Surround sound is a technique for enriching the fidelity and depth of sound reproduction by using multiple audio channels from speakers that surround the listener ( surround channels). Its first application was in movie theaters. Prior to sur ...

and 16:9 widescreen video. The bonus features include ''Planet Earth Diaries'' (presented immediately after each episode as for the original TV broadcast) and '' Planet Earth: The Future''. In the United States, two versions of the same five-disc set were released as a Region 1 (

NTSC The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...

) DVD on 24 April 2007. The BBC Warner release retained David Attenborough's narration from the original British television broadcasts, but the Discovery Channel edition used the alternative Sigourney Weaver voice-over. Even in the United States the Attenborough version was much the better for sales.

HD DVD and Blu-ray

Except for a small amount of extremely hard-to-obtain footage, ''Planet Earth'' was filmed entirely in high-definition, and consequently became one of the first television series to take advantage of the new HD disc formats. The series was released in both

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

and

HD DVD HD DVD (short for High Definition Digital Versatile Disc) is an obsolete high-density optical disc format for storing data and playback of high-definition video. Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to th ...

formats as a five-disc Region B box set on 12 November 2007. On the fifth disc, the bonus features from the

standard-definition Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...

DVD set were replaced by two episodes from the BBC's ''

Natural World ''Natural World'' is a strand of British wildlife documentary programmes broadcast on BBC Two and BBC Two HD and regarded by the BBC as its flagship natural history series. It is the longest-running documentary in its genre on British televis ...

'' series, "Desert Lions" and "Snow Leopard: Beyond the Myth", both also presented in high-definition. In the United States, the series was released as a four-disc set in both high-definition formats, the Blu-ray version on single-layer BD-25 discs and the HD DVD set on dual-layer HD DVD-30 discs. The first U.S. high-definition releases omitted the extra disc of bonus features from the standard-definition boxed set, though these extras were included with new material in a special-edition Blu-ray released in 2011.

Books

Four official tie-in volumes were published by

BBC Books BBC Books (also formerly known as BBC Publishing) is an imprint majority-owned and managed by Penguin Random House through its Ebury Publishing division. The minority shareholder is BBC Studios, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasti ...

in 2006 and 2007: *''Planet Earth: As You've Never Seen It Before'', written by Alastair Fothergill with a foreword by David Attenborough, was published in hardback on 5 October 2006 (). *The paperback title ''Planet Earth: The Future'' was also published on 5 October 2006 (). It was edited by Fergus Beeley and Rosamund Kidman Cox with a foreword by Jonathon Porritt. *A second paperback volume revealed some of the tales from the field during filming expeditions. ''Planet Earth: The Making of an Epic Series'' was written by David Nicholson-Lord and published on 9 March 2006 (). *A collection of still images from the series was published in a hardcover volume as ''Planet Earth: The Photographs'' on 7 October 2007 ().

Soundtrack album

On 20 November 2006, a two-disc

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

CD was released with a compilation of the

incidental music Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as t ...

specially commissioned for ''Planet Earth''. The award-winning score was composed by

George Fenton George Richard Ian Howe (born 19 October 1949), known professionally as George Fenton, is an English composer. Best known for his work writing film scores and music for television, he has received five Academy Award nominations, several Ivor No ...

and performed by the

BBC Concert Orchestra The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale sym ...

and has been performed during "Planet Earth Live" events in the United States and the United Kingdom.

References

External links

* *
Planet Earth
' at

BBC Earth BBC Earth is a brand used by BBC Studios since 2009 to market and distribute the BBC's natural history content to countries other than the United Kingdom. BBC Studios is the commercial arm of the public service broadcaster. BBC Earth commercia ...

Discovery Channel website''Planet Earth''
on the Eden website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Planet Earth (Tv Series) 2006 British television series debuts 2006 British television series endings 2000s British documentary television series Discovery Channel original programming BBC high definition shows BBC television documentaries Peabody Award-winning television programs Nature educational television series Television series by BBC Studios Planet Earth (franchise) Television Academy Honors winners

Background

Broadcast

British television

International

Episodes

''Planet Earth: The Future''

Feature film

Reception

Critical reception

Accolades

Awards and nominations

Audience response

Sequel

Merchandise

DVD

HD DVD and Blu-ray

Books

Soundtrack album

See also

References

Further reading

External links