Acorn shops with ABC

Essie Davis stars in Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries

US streaming service Acorn TV has signed a distribution deal with the commercial arm of Australian pubcaster ABC to air its content from Australia and New Zealand.

The agreement includes period detective series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, which stars Essie Davis. Other series include Jack Irish, starring Guy Pearce, A Moody Christmas and The Moody’s. UK comedy drama Kingdom, starring Stephen Fry, Shameless and Churchill’s Secret are also part of the deal.

Acorn TV offers content from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Spain. It is owned by AMC Networks, following its acquisition of previous parent RLJ Entertainment in 2018.

Acorn has distributed British TV shows in the US since 1994 and launched a streaming service for predominantly British drama in 2018. The deal with ABC follows the news that Acorn had topped one million subscribers last week.

“ABC Commercial has been a partner of Acorn TV from its launch in 2018,” said Jessica Ellis, head of content sales and distribution at ABC Commercial.

“ABC content resonates with Acorn’s core audience so we are extremely happy to build on our partnership and see more of the ABC’s world-class list of content streaming on the Acorn TV platform.”