Silver Spring, MD; November 30, 2010 – Acorn Media Group, a leading independent media company, has acquired rights to the popular British detective series Foyle’s War and other first-rate television programs from Greenlit Rights Limited, formerly a leading UK independent production company. Though Acorn has had DVD rights to Foyle’s War for several years, this important deal gives Acorn permanent ownership and control of all rights, including DVD, underlying intellectual property rights, Internet streaming, download-to-own, and broadcast television. The acquisition marks the first time Acorn Media Group has acquired ownership rights to one of its British series.

Acorn Media Group CEO Miguel Penella said, "We see this acquisition as a key step forward in the company’s vision of becoming a comprehensive media company for discerning audiences, and we are very excited to add these popular and critically-acclaimed programs to our library. Foyle’s War has been one of our top-selling franchises on DVD for many years, and we look forward to its strong future as we continue that DVD distribution and expand it across other platforms."

Called "Like a gift from the gods" (The New York Times) and "A triumph from start to finish" (The Wall Street Journal), Foyle’s War has aired on PBS’s Mystery! since February 2003, and DVDs presenting Seasons One and Two of the series are Acorn Media U.S.’s top two best selling DVDs of all time. The WWII detective series stars the brilliant Michael Kitchen. It is created and written by the remarkable and prolific Anthony Horowitz.

Jill Green founded Greenlit Rights Limited in September 1998 and since then they produced several high-profile series, including Foyle’s War. She sold the company to Target Entertainment Group in February 2008 and stayed on as Managing Director until July 2010, when Target faltered financially, Greenlit was forced into administration, and she had to resign. Acorn Media has approached Green about the possibility of working together in the future on some of the former Greenlit programs and early stage discussions are underway.

Called "chief curators of the best Brit TV" by TIME magazine, Acorn Media Group’s U.S. division is a leading distributor of British television programming on DVD. In addition, Acorn U.S. distributes a DVD line of original health & wellness programming under the Acacia DVD label, as well as high quality documentaries under the new Athena DVD label. It released nearly 100 DVDs in 2010, including Helen Mirren’s iconic series Prime Suspect: The Complete Collection, Life on Mars: The Complete UK Collection, Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Marple, Doc Martin, Midsomer Murders, Poldark, among many others.

Besides Acorn Media U.S., Acorn Media Group consists of three other divisions. Acorn Direct, offers DVDs and other high quality products in North America through its Acorn and Acacia catalogs and on-line marketing vehicles; Acorn Media U.K. and Acorn Media Australia distribute the Acorn line DVD titles to consumers in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand. www.acornmedia.com

Press Contact
Chad Campbell, Acorn Media, 301.608.2115 ext. 138, ccampbell@acornmedia.com