Terra Nova, the epic new dinosaur series from Steven Spielberg, is to air on Sky 1 exactly one week after its US broadcast.

The series will launch with a two-hour pilot on 3 October in an 8pm slot and will run for 13 episodes.

It marks an ongoing effort by Sky to close the broadcast window between US and UK broadcast in a bid to tackle online piracy and bring viewers new content as soon as possible.

It will begin airing high school musical series Glee on Thursday (22 September), just two days after its debut on US network Fox.

Terra Nova is initially set in the year 2149, when life on Earth is on the brink of extinction, scientists send people back in time 85 million years to prehistoric Earth.

The Shannon family join the initiative to travel back to Terra Nova, a colony established in the past. But they are unaware that it is surrounded by vicious dinosaurs and that they will face conflict from both inside and outside the camp walls.

Jason O’Mara, who played Sam Tyler in the US remake of Life On Mars, plays Jim Shannon, while Shelly Conn (Strike Back) plays Elisabeth, his wife and mother of their three children.

The ambitious series is understood to have required more than 250 sets, and the two-hour pilot cost $16m (£10m) alone.

Spielberg is one of 13 executive producers on the series.

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