LONDON - Men’s entertainment channel Bravo has expanded its portfolio of new US dramas acquiring Warner Brothers cult vampire thriller ’Blade: The Series’ and Fox’s Special Forces action drama ’The Unit’ produced by the makers of hit cop drama ’The Shield’.

The two series will debut in the channel’s peaktime slot this autumn. ’Blade: The Series’ is a spin-off of the Wesley Snipes-starring ’Blade’ movies. In the US, the series recently premiered on Spike TV with rapper Kirk Jones taking over the vampire hunter Snipes role.

’The Unit’ stars Dennis Haysbert, best known as President David Palmer in ’24’, as the commander of a Special Forces team who operate around the world.

The shows will fill the gap left by long time spy drama ’Alias’ starring Jennifer Garner, which finishes its run soon.

Jonathan Webb, director of programmes for Bravo, Trouble Challenge and Player, said: "Off the back of the ratings winner ’Alias’ with its season finale only weeks away, we are delighted to have snapped up two more US dramas jam-packed with thrilling action and custom made for our male target audience.

"’Blade: The Series’, with its film heritage, and ’The Unit’ having already experience phenomenal success in US, are the perfect duo to add to Bravo’s already hugely popular stable of content."

The acquisitions are part of the channel’s focus on an evening schedule devoted to the male audience, which was part of a rebrand in autumn 2005, shifting the emphasis of the channel and attract advertisers with products targeting men to Bravo. The channel targets a 16- to 44-year-old male demographic.

Earlier this month, Bravo acquired US animation strand ’Adult Swim’, including Seth Green’s ’Robot Chicken’.

In February, Flextech launched a men’s entertainment channel called Player. The channel was launched to complement Bravo, but has a different programming content targetting the 16- to 44-year-old male audience. Programming includes Italian football, films and the US drama series ’Tilt’.

Flextech, the network that broadcasts Bravo, launched a broadband service this month giving viewers access to its programming from Living TV and Bravo, such as ’Extreme Makeover’ and spy drama ’Alias’.

’Blade: The Series’ and ’The Unit’ will not be involved in the new download service.

David Clarke, Bravo channel editor, and Webb negotiated the acquisition deals for the channel.