Castle coming to the UK - yay and nay?

On Thursday it was announced that UKTV's Alibi had picked up the rights to broadcast Castle. I've been lucky enough to catch a few episodes and have mentioned, in a previous post, that I really like this show. Richard Castle has become one of my favourite TV characters.

After my initial excitement wore off, the realisation of it all took over; the show will be on Alibi. This might not mean much to some people but for me, this channel is a way for me to catch some of the episodes of Murder She Wrote that I didn't catch the first, second, third or fifteenth time it has every been aired.

Yes the channel does have crime drama's but its line up consists mostly of rebroadcasts from other UK channels, some dating back to the 80's; Murdoch Mysteries is one of a very small handful of shows that have originally aired in the past couple of years.

I read The Hollywood Reporter's story about the acquisition, which included quotes from UKTV acquisitions manager Alexandra Finlay "This acquisition exemplifies the channel's ambition to secure other key U.S. and international crime content in the future."

Alibi boss Steve Hornsey added "Alibi is well known for its high-quality British content, and introducing a hugely successful U.S. series in "Castle" will not only broaden the appeal of the channel but also the editorial mix. Adding Castle to our schedule should be seen as a clear message of intent."

I thought that if one of the main five channels didn't pick Castle up then maybe Sky1, E4, ITV2 or one of Five's sister channels might pick it up. These have proven track records with showing US TV and higher viewing numbers.

Scepticism aside, I do hope the show does well enough and others get to enjoy it. I will be keen to see what advertising is done, if it performs well and if the channel does add some more new content to help it become more than just a channel of repeats.