The international distribution rights to the former Alliance Atlantis’s program vault, comprising around 7,500 first-run and catalogue titles amassed over a generation, have been sold by Goldman Sachs Capital Partners to U.S. distributor Echo Bridge Entertainment.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But Needham, Mass.-based Echo Bridge picked up the crown jewels of Canadian television from the U.S. investment bank, which last year acquired Alliance Atlantis Communications with partner Canwest Global Communications.

As part of its share purchase agreement with Goldman Sachs, Echo Bridge picked up the worldwide rights, excluding Canada, to adult and teen series such as Degrassi: The Next Generation and Instant Star.

The U.S. distributor, which will begin to shop the Alliance Atlantis catalog at MIPTV, is keen to exploit the DVD potential of the Canadian titles in the U.S. market.

Echo Bridge will also pursue U.S. television, VOD and digital sales.

The Echo Bridge deal marks the latest commoditization of Canadian culture, coming as it does after the CBC last December sold its international catalogue to Fireworks International, a division of Britain’s ContentFilm.