Edmonton-based Allarco Entertainment has signed a long-term pay-TV deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and will launch its channel, licensed by the CRTC over a year ago, on Oct. 19, the upstart announced Wednesday.

Under the agreement, new features, series and material from the MGM and United Artists libraries will air on Allarco’s Superchannel Canada.

The channel will air the Canadian premiere of War Games II — a sequel to the 1983 nuclear thriller — in November and the Dead Like Me movie, based on the since-cancelled Showtime series. The deal also includes several upcoming MGM series, including Spaceballs: The Animated Series, Pink Panther and Pals and Barbershop: The Series.

‘This agreement is the first of many announcements leading up to our national launch,’ said VP of programming Sandy Perkins, in a statement.

Allarco was awarded its pay-TV licence in May 2006 by the CRTC over Quebecor Media’s Boom TV, Spotlight Entertainment and Channel Zero’s Canadian Film Channel. Its Superchannel will break the monopolies held by Astral’s The Movie Network in eastern Canada and Corus Entertainment’s Movie Central in the west.

At the time of licensing, Allarco president and COO Malcolm Knox indicated the new channel would launch in early 2007.

Superchannel consists of two HD channels, four standard channels and a standard VOD platform.