In the latest episode of Screen Time, Jen Linck (Acorn Media's VP of Digital) revealed some news relevant to fans of UK TV here in the States. Not only did she reveal a planned July overhaul to their still relatively-new Roku app and streaming service, but some exclusive, faster-than-usual US debuts of popular shows. The overhauled service promises 800-900 all-you-can-eat hours of content from across all genre of UK TV.

The sixth (final?) season of public television hit Doc Martin will debut exclusively on Acorn TV, as soon after each episode's UK airing as possible. They have put new series of both Foyle's War and Poirot into production, with original stars Michael Kitchen and David Suchet reprising respectively. The new Foyle's War will debut on Masterpiece, and appear on Acorn TV the next day after airing. The entire final series of Poirot telefilms will see the first two debut on Masterpiece, but the rest, including the very last one, will debut exclusively on Acorn TV. There's a new series of Marple being filmed, with US distribution plans still under wraps.

This is a huge deal for the new entrant to the "streaming channel" game, which currently costs $25/year or $3/month. The content arms race is on, and Acorn holds the SVOD rights to a staggering library of UK TV content. They're moving earlier than most others with libraries even approaching the size and quality of theirs.