Acorn TV’s Drama Strategy

With a strong core of mysteries, dramas and thrillers from around the world, Acorn TV is nearing 14 years in the streaming landscape. “Over more than a decade, Acorn TV has built up a passionate and engaged audience who deeply enjoy our programming,” says Don Klees, senior VP of programming. “We strive to keep faith with the loyal subscribers who have supported us for so long. At the same time, we strongly believe that there’s a wider audience who might not realize yet that Acorn TV is for them—they just need us to bring them the right show to open the door. That’s why you’ll see new shows like Irish Blood (starring Alicia Silverstone) joining established franchises like My Life Is Murder (starring Lucy Lawless) on the service. While we try to maintain that careful balance, it’s frankly a terrific position to be in as a specialty streamer capable of bringing subscribers a collection of content they love and crave.”

Crime drama is a calling card for Acorn TV, says Klees. “One of our defining elements is how the drama in these shows can be as important as the crime. How the characters relate to each other (or don’t) is often just as appealing to our viewers as the intriguing mysteries that set these stories in motion. Going beyond age, gender or even genre, the common thread is empathy—characters that our viewers can relate to on an emotional level. It might be a murder investigation that’s driving the plot, but you can bet there’s something deeper at the heart of the story.”

Acorn TV aims to release at least one original tentpole series per month. The majority are direct commissions and/or co-productions, such as Signora Volpe, starring Emilia Fox; Inspector Ellis, led by Sharon D Clarke; and Art Detectives, featuring Stephen Moyer. The service also has several long-running acquired series, such as Midsomer Murders and Murdoch Mysteries, “which our viewers love watching and rewatching,” says Klees.

The New Zealand production The Brokenwood Mysteries has long been popular on Acorn TV, “but over the last few years, it seems to have reached a critical mass with our viewers, who are anxiously awaiting the next season—which I’m happy to share will debut early next year,” Klees says. “It’s also gratifying to see our audience continue their embrace of non-English-language series such as The Sommerdahl Murders and Candice Renoir. We love offering viewers a literal world of mystery. In the last year, the most recent season of The Brokenwood Mysteries and season two of Signora Volpe were two of the top four most-watched seasons of television across Acorn’s entire 13-year history.”

Regarding acquisitions, Klees says that while Acorn TV does “love our returning series, we never want to lose sight of the excellent stand-alone dramas that are being made—shows that are still engaging and substantial but don’t require blocking out several days on your social calendar.” He cites as examples Steeltown Murders, which was based on a real-life murder investigation, and For Her Sins, a thriller centered around the evergreen subject of a family in turmoil.

“Crime drama is very much at the core of Acorn TV’s programming, and we want to continue bringing our customers engaging, well-made series in that space from all over the world,” says Klees. “Whether it’s cozy versus dark or procedurals versus serialized storylines, it’s a wide-open area, which is great because some fans might prefer one end of the spectrum to the other, while other fans love it all. Two new series for 2025 that point to that variety are our Alicia Silverstone-led mystery/drama Irish Blood and the Stephen Moyer-led detective series Art Detectives. Both are filmed in different parts of Ireland, allowing us to continue to deliver compelling dramas and mysteries set against appealing backdrops. We’ve been working with the producers to develop both projects from their inception, and as we see the scripts being brought to life, we can’t wait to share them with our viewers.”
As for what’s guiding the strategy for the year ahead at the streamer, Klees says it’s “all about the audience, both those that have been with us for years and those who haven’t found Acorn yet. We never take the former for granted, and we’re always mindful of how we can appeal to the latter while staying true to our programming philosophy. You see that in the commission Irish Blood, starring Alicia Silverstone. She’s certainly not our first lead actress who’s well known in the U.S., but having an American character in the Irish setting—investigating not just a murder but also uncovering the hidden truth of her whole life—is a great twist on the kind of show that Acorn TV has always offered.”