A SATELLITE channel specialising in horror films has been bought by an international broadcasting company.

The Horror Channel, based in Gateshead, was acquired for an undisclosed sum by international broadcaster Zone Vision, which operates channels that include Reality TV, Romantica and Europa Europa.

Tony Hazell, from Bishop Auckland, County Durham, who founded The Horror Channel in March last year, has sold the rights of the name and film contracts to Zone Vision.

He said: "We found it difficult to raise money in the North-East and the company ran into debt. This deal has cleared all our debts and there is money in the bank.

"We have not sold the facility or our staff to Zone Vision, so we have been rebranded as NTX Broadcast and will work with Zone Vision to service The Horror Channel, in terms of the scheduling of programmes and editing.

"Basically, what the deal has done is take the big costs and the headaches away for us and allowed us to focus on channel management. It has also meant we can employ another member of staff to our ten-strong team."

Zone Vision, which is based in London, has pledged to inject funds to provide The Horror Channel with new programming, new titles and more classic horror films.

"Horror is a very popular genre right now," said Zone Vision's programming chief Adam Robinson.

"Our aim is to open up to a new audience, appealing to the mainstream viewer, as well as satisfying the existing hard core horror fan by acquiring cult movies."