Vidéoclick was a commercial

television channel A television channel is a terrestrial frequency or virtual number over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the terrestrial or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with ...

shown in the

French Community of Belgium In Belgium, the French Community (french: Communauté française; ) refers to one of the three constituent constitutional linguistic communities. Since 2011, the French Community has used the name Wallonia-Brussels Federation (french: Fédé ...

History of the channel

The Youth Channel Television group, which operates the Belgian channels AB3 and

AB4 AB4 was a Belgian broadcast television station owned and operated by BTV, a subsidiary of AB Groupe. It targeted the French community in Belgium. On September 13, 2017, at 20:30 it became ABXplore. History Claude Berda, CEO of the French AB Gr ...

, entered negotiations in 2004 with the communications agency (CSA) of the

to obtain a new broadcasting licence. Named AB5, the projected new channel presented the agency with the chance to become the Belgian version of

AB1 AB1 ''(formally AB Channel 1 until 1995)'' is a French television channel aimed at young adults. History AB1 launched on Eutelsat's Hot Bird satellite and on cable on December 1, 1995 as AB Channel 1 nearly a year before the launch of the AB ...

, with a target market of 15/25 years old and showing a mix of

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

and music.

AB Groupe Mediawan Thematics (formerly known as AB Groupe) is a French business group in the field of broadcasting. It was founded in 1977 by Jean-Luc Azoulay and Claude Berda as a music production company, and in 1987 went into the world of television. ...

, which controlled YTV, proposed other channels for the TVI SA group to rival the

RTL Group RTL Group (for "Radio Television Luxembourg") is a Luxembourg-based international media conglomerate, with another corporate centre in Cologne, Germany. The company operates 68 television channels and 31 radio stations in Germany, France and ...

in Belgium: AB3, a general channel to rival

RTL-TVI RTL-TVI is a private French-language Luxembourg based television station in Belgium owned by DPG Media and Groupe Rossel, it was originally owned by the RTL Group until 31 March 2022. Within the French-speaking area of Belgium, it is the most ...

, a grown-up channel to rival

Club RTL Club RTL is a Luxembourgish channel of French language based in Kirchberg, Luxembourg-City, Luxembourg and it was owned by DPG Media and Groupe Rossel, it was originally owned by RTL Group until 31 March 2022. The two principals countries of tr ...

and AB5, the youth channel in competition with Plug TV. Although Claude Berda, head of

, was still in conflict with the Audiovisual Council (CSA) over his non-cooperation with certain regulations with AB3 in 2001 and 2002, the members of the CSA awarded a 9-year licence to AB5 on 18 February

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

. The launch of the channel took place without any agreement being reached with a cable broadcaster. The broadcast tests took place over Idéatel (around

Mons Mons (; German and nl, Bergen, ; Walloon and pcd, Mont) is a city and municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the province of Hainaut, Belgium. Mons was made into a fortified city by Count Baldwin IV of Hainaut in the 12th century. T ...

) with the channel opening by showing pop videos for a few days, on Igeho (Hainaut Occidental) and channel 72, with the channel showing a black screen for a few days, and on Coditel from February 2005 to August 2006. In September

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, the channel was officially launched under the name La Quatre and radically changed from the ideas underlying AB4 at its creation, so that it became a channel showing cult series from the 60s, 70s and 80s, and also classic films. The change of name allowed

to re-use programmes originally shown in 2005 on NT1 via digital television in France on the new "La Quatre". It also allowed the channel to place itself directly after the three main channels of the

RTBF The ''Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française'' (RTBF, ''Belgian Radio-television of the French Community'', branded as rtbf.be) is a public service broadcaster delivering radio and television services to the French-speaking Commu ...

, as the fourth francophone Belgian channel, in place of

, which returned to

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

. Failing to find an audience, and very similar to

decided to stop showing "La Quatre" on 3 April

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

. On 3 April 2007, Vidéoclick took over from La Quatre (formerly AB5) and became a channel based around a website.

Organisation

Managers

Président : *Rolland Berda

Capital

Vidéoclick is owned 100% by BTV SA (formerly YTV), financed 49% by

, and Ipercast SA.

Programmes

Formerly, La Quatre showed similar programs to

, such as TV series and old films. There was no call-TV and no teleshopping. When call-TV and teleshopping was shown on AB4, La Quatre showed old series. To start with, the programs shown on AB4 (including call-TV and teleshopping) were shown at the same time on La Quatre. Sometimes La Quatre showed the same programmes but delayed by a few days. La Quatre started showing pop videos in March 2007 until midday, and repeated these programmes in the evening. Currently, Vidéoclick shows short advertising films, humorous videos, short clips, films, which are also available on the channel's website. People who visit the website of the channel can vote for the videos which they wish to be shown on the Vidéoclick channel. Vidéoclick has changed broadcast since July 2008.

Broadcast

La Quatre was shown on Coditel cable in the Brussels region and on Ideatel (

and

Centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

). The channel was also shown on the Select package of Belgacom TV since mid-March 2007. Since April 2007, Vidéoclick is available via AB Sat and on the channel's website.

External links

La Quatre

Official site of Vidéoclick
{{DEFAULTSORT:Videoclick Mediawan Thematics Defunct television channels in Belgium Television channels and stations established in 2007 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2009 2007 establishments in Belgium 2009 disestablishments in Belgium