Southern Star, RTE Renew Alliance

SYDNEY/DUBLIN, October 20:
Irish broadcaster RTE has signed up for a new output deal with Southern Star
International covering a range of genres, and has renewed its rights to the hit
soap Home and Away.

The new pact extends two
earlier arrangements between the two companies and provides for an annual
guaranteed pickup of TV movies, drama series, mini-series, children’s product,
factual and library selections.

In addition to five
additional years with Home and Away,
RTE has taken the British version of Hi-5, the new Australian drama Packed to the Rafters and further installments of Wire in the Blood.

Dermot Horan, the director
of broadcast and acquisitions for RTE, noted: “RTE has a very long and fruitful
relationship with Southern Star. We were the very first broadcaster in the
Northern Hemisphere to show Home and Away and it continues to be our most popular daily show on RTE 2. The
sheer range of the Southern Star catalogue, from the best of Australian drama
and factual programming, to top-end ITV and BBC dramas and excellent natural history
and children’s programming, makes it a perfect fit with RTE’s mixed-genre
channels.”

—By Mansha Daswani