Chorion sells Christie estate

A US media group has acquired the Agatha Christie literary estate from UK-based intellectual property firm Chorion, in a deal that includes nearly 40 telemovies.

Poirot

Silver Spring-based Acorn Media Group has acquired a 64% stake in Agatha Christie Ltd, including more than 80 novels, 19 plays and a library of nearly 40 TV films. The estate includes the iconic Mrs Marple and Hercule Poirot characters.

Agatha Christie Ltd is a coproduction partner of the UK’s ITV Studios, whose dramas based on the franchise for its parent network are some of the company’s biggest international sellers.

The deal marks the latest brand Chorion has sold off at auction as the company offloads its assets to repay multimillion-dollar debts. No financial details were disclosed but the Christie family will keep the remaining 36%.

Acorn primarily focuses on bringing UK content to the North American market and in 2010 acquired the Foyle’s War brand and other programmes from the administrator of Greenlit Productions, the former production wing of Target Entertainment, which itself went into administration this week.

Furthermore, Acorn last year launched Acorn TV, a UK TV-focused streaming service for North America. “We see this acquisition as a key step in the company’s continued evolution into content ownership and television production,” said CEO Miguel Penella.

Chorion, which last year put its assets up for sales after the departure of chairman and CEO Lord Waheed Alli, has sold the Mr Men brand to licensing group Sanrio, and Octonauts and the Beatrix Potter literary estate to Alli’s new firm Silvergate Media.

Chorion still owns the Max & Ruby and Noddy franchises, among others.