Cuatro buys 'Gossip Girl'

Teen drama to air in primetime

By EMILIANO DE PABLOS

MADRID — Spanish broadcaster Cuatro has acquired free-to-air rights to U.S. teen drama "Gossip Girl."

The web bought the rights to the skein, which is being broadcast in the U.S. by the CW Network, from Warner Bros. Intl. TV.

"The series is of maximum importance for us. We'll air it in a primetime slot," Alejandro Florez, Cuatro head of programming, told Daily Variety.

The series, about wealthy students, also airs in Spain in a subtitled version on Sony pay TV channel AXN.

Cuatro was launched by Spain's biggest media company, Prisa, in November 2005. Driven by the success of "House," it rapidly became one of the main destinations for fans of U.S. fiction.

U.S. skeins occupy two weekly primetime slots. On Tuesday night, the web airs the fifth season of "House," which averages a 14.8% share and 3 million viewers. "Ghost Whisperer's” fourth season (7.8%, 1.6 million) airs Sundays.

Cuatro averaged a 8.5% aud share in January.

The network bows Thursday a local version of NBC’s late-night comedy show "Saturday Night Live," once again demonstrating the influence of U.S. TV programming on Cuatro’s programming tastes.

Produced by top Spanish fiction house Globomedia, "SNL" is one of Cuatro's most ambitious bets of the season.