Coogan web series moves to Oz network

An Australian pay-TV broadcaster has acquired Baby Cow-produced web series Mid-Morning Matters, starring Steve Coogan’s comic alter ego Alan Partridge.

The Comedy Channel will broadcast the show early next year after picking up two 6×25′ seasons from distributor BBC Worldwide. It sees wince-inducing broadcaster Partridge once again causing offence to virtually everyone he meets, this time through his own local internet radio show.

It is understood to be the first television deal for Mid-Morning Matters, which C21 earlier this year revealed was set to make the move to TV. The show first went out through a Foster beer-branded online comedy channel in 2010 and a second season was revealed earlier this month.

Coogan’s Partridge character was popularised in the 1990s in a series of UK comedies such as the BBC’s The Day Today and Knowing Me, Knowing You and I’m Alan Partridge.

Foxtel-backed Comedy Channel has also acquired a number of other Coogan-fronted programmes: Coogan’s Run (6×30′), from A Pozzitive Television; season one and two of Baby Cow’s Saxondale (7×30′ and 6×30′); Alan Partridge and Other Less Successful Characters (1×90′); Steve Coogan – The Inside Story (1×60′); and Steve Coogan – The Man Who Thinks He’s It (1×90′).

In addition, BBCWW has sold the channel Open Mike Productions’ Alan Carr: Tooth Fairy (1×60′); Red Dwarf seasons one, two, seven and eight; and 2009 special Red Dwarf – Back to Earth (4×30′).