Living poaches rights to 'Supernatural'

The fifth season of Supernatural will air on Living after Virgin Media scooped the rights to the cult show from ITV2.

The deal with Warner Brothers will also give the channel exclusive rights to a potential season six, as well as the right to air the first four seasons from August 1, it was announced today.

"As a strong and rapidly growing brand both in the US and the UK, Supernatural has had an awful lot of interest and, as the home of the best in paranormal drama, we’re thrilled to have secured it," said Amy Barham, head of acquisitions for Virgin.

The fourth season of the drama, which stars Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, drew an average audience of 870,000 during its run on ITV2, marking an 11.5% increase from season three.

Jeffrey Schlesinger, President of Warner Brothers International Television, added: "Living's enthusiasm to add Supernatural to its schedule convinced us that this would be a good move. Being able to schedule both the new episodes and the prior seasons already telecast simultaneously will allow Living to make the relaunch of the series in the UK a big event for its viewing audience."

The deal between Virgin Media and Warner also saw Virgin 1 extend its licence to season three and a potential season four of action comedy Chuck.