Sky One has acquired the exclusive rights to the next series of US show Prison Break, which is currently broadcast on Channel Five.

BSkyB's pay-TV entertainment channel is understood to have paid around ￡500,000 an episode for Prison Break, topping Five, which was paying around ￡400,000 per episode.

Sky One has also acquired the rights to new US drama Journeyman, which features actor Kevin Kidd - star of Trainspotting, Dog Soldiers and Rome. The network has secured the rights to the first two seasons of Journeyman.

David Smyth, the head of acquisitions for Sky One, Two and Three, described the shows as a "perfect addition" to its US programming schedule.

The third series of Prison Break will air on Sky One from the autumn. Five is set to air the last episode of the second series next week.

A Five spokesman said: "In the light of Prison Break's declining ratings we didn't feel the asking price for season three represented good value."

Prison Break averaged about a 9% audience share in its first series on Five last year and has been running at around 8.5% so far during the second run.

Last night's penultimate episode of series two had 1.2 million viewers and a 7% share.

Prison Break follows the story of Michael Scofield and his attempts to prove his brother Lincoln Burrows' innocence after he is framed and put on death row for murdering the US president.

Last year, Sky One swooped to snatch the third series of Lost from Channel 4 at a reported cost of ￡1m per episode.

And in 2004, it acquired the rights to air 24 from series three onwards; the BBC had aired the first two series of the Kiefer Sutherland show.

Sky One negotiated the deal to air Prison Break and Journeyman with 20th Century Fox Television Distribution, which is a subsidiary of News Corporation, the largest shareholder in BSkyB.

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