Cult US hit Dawson's Creek will switch from Channel 4 to Five, formerly Channel 5, for its final series in the UK.
Off to Five: But Dawson's Creek will still appear on E4
Five will show the sixth and final season of the drama on Saturday evenings, which are likely to begin next year.
It has also bought rights to repeat the first and second series of the show, which began in 1998.
But the sixth series will be screened first on Channel 4's digital offshoot E4 in the summer, before it can be shown on Five.
Executives pulled out of the bidding for the terrestrial rights to the final series, allowing Five to take the show.
Viewers have watched the cast - James van Der Beek, Joshua Jackson, Katie Holmes and Michelle Williams - grow up in the fictional New England hamlet of Capeside since the show began in 1998.
In the fifth series, which is currently showing on Channel 4, they have moved on to university in Boston.
The show's leading actors are now looking at promising film careers, including van der Beek, who plays Dawson.
The actor, who is 26 on Sunday, won plaudits for his starring role in The Rules of Attraction, which is released in the UK at the end of this month.
Holmes, 24, who plays Joey, has starred in The Gift and Wonder Boys, while Williams, 22, who plays Jen, appeared with Anna Friel in Me Without You.
Director of acquisitions at Five, Jeff Ford, said: "Five has become the home of top US shows and I am delighted to add Dawson's Creek to our schedule."
Five has a record of picking up successful imported shows.
It poached Australian soap Home And Away from ITV in 2000, and shows acclaimed US hits Law and Order, CSI and The Shield.
Dawson's Creek will end in the US on 14 May, with a two-hour special.