Sky and Channel 4 back British online TV rights tool TRX

TRX offers the like of Sky and other producers, such as ITV or Entertainment One, a low-cost method of reaching buyers in new international markets for shows they have produced.

Broadcasters should in turn gain easier access to TV rights that TRX argues would previously have been difficult to secure.

The fundraising round will see the companies take minority stakes in Dial Square 86 Limited, a vehicle established in 2014 by former RDF Media founders and Zodiak Media executives, David and Matthew Frank, and backed by a strong advisory board of media industry veterans.

A July 'soft launch' in Asia has already seen more than 5,000 hours of programming made available on TRX by UK and US distributors and rights holders including Sky's production and distribution arm Sky Vision; Discovery Communications; Midsomer Murders and Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares producer All3Media International, Have I Got News For You and Outnumbered producer Hat Trick International and Sesame Street maker Sesame Workshop.

Channel 4's Indie Growth Fund used some of its £20m facility to back TRX, with Channel 4 chief executive David Abraham saying post the Brexit vote it was "even more important for the UK's creative industries to have access to innovative ways of trading across the globe" and that the TRX tool was a valuable online resource that will "help support a buoyant UK indie sector well into the future".

Sky business development director Emma Lloyd said the FTSE 100's group investment, following several other recent equity investments in innovative media companies, "reflects our ambition to partner with pioneering start-ups that can help transform the TV landscape".

She added: "We're delighted to be backing such an innovative UK-based company, with its roots firmly in the creative sector. Together with Channel 4, we can help TRX to grow the TV rights market, which will benefit everyone in the industry."