‘Doc’, a new procedural medical drama that debuted on FOX earlier this year, has been identified by Show Tracker as one of 2025’s most widely distributed series despite not being tied to a global streaming platform.
The show is a US remake of Rai’s hit Italian procedural series ‘Doc – Nelle tue mani’, first aired in 2020, and was co-produced between Fox Entertainment and Sony Pictures, with Sony handling international distribution. In a landscape dominated by studios vertically integrating their first window content, Sony has taken a different route and is finding success.
Within five months of its US premiere, ‘Doc’ has been licensed in the majority of Show Tracker markets. In Europe, Italy’s Rai, which produced the original, picked up the remake, airing it four months after its American debut. In Europe, the series has been acquired by Videoland in the Netherlands, Movistar+ in Spain and RTL+ in Germany.
Major studio SVOD players have also stepped in. HBO Max secured the show for Poland while Disney+ picked up rights across all Latin America markets.
Although Sony lacks its own global streaming platform, in India it launched ‘Doc’ on their local SVOD SonyLIV. While it has premiered on AXN across Pan-Asian markets, this channel is no longer under Sony’s ownership, after they sold it to KC Global Media in 2020.
Most platforms that acquired the show opted for enhanced catch-up rights, offering audiences the ability to stream full seasons. BVOD buyers in Europe have found this an increasingly important requirement. Two exceptions are Wowow Prime in Japan, who only opted for 30 day catch-up following its linear debut, and NXT in South Korea where the show aired on a linear-only basis, an increasingly uncommon approach for a first window acquisition.
Some countries have not shown the series yet, but the international success of ‘Doc’ so far demonstrates that there is still strong interest in procedural dramas from local buyers. While linear television was once the traditional home for this type of content, not only are all sizes of streamers keen to acquire procedural dramas, even local broadcasters like Seven in Australia and RTL in Germany are choosing to use titles like ‘Doc’ to strengthen their digital services over their TV channels.
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