Automoto la chaîne is a French television channel dedicated to

motorsports Motorsport or motor sport are sporting events, competitions and related activities that primarily involve the use of automobiles, motorcycles, motorboats and powered aircraft An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the po ...

History of the channel

The channel was created in March 1996 for the

AB Sat AB Sat is a package of digital terrestrial television channels (encrypted with Viaccess and Mediaguard) offered by the satellite companies Hot Bird and Astra and marketed in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany. The channels are all (or pa ...

package under the name Automobile as a channel dedicated to cars in all ways (collections, history of classic models, tracks, etc.). Ab moteurs

Due to the same of AB Sports to the

Pathé Pathé SAS (; styled as PATHÉ!) is a French major film production and distribution company, owning a number of cinema chains through its subsidiary Pathé Cinémas and television networks across Europe. It is the name of a network of Fren ...

group in 1997, the channel was reformatted to fill the gap on the

package, and appeal to a young male audience. The channel was renamed AB Moteurs in 1998 and contained programmes around various motorsport: cars,

bikes A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. B ...

aeroplane An airplane (American English), or aeroplane (Commonwealth English), informally plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a vari ...

s and boats, broadcasting a number of races live, in competitions with the other French sports channels,

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

and

Sport+ Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in a par ...

. In 2008, AB Moteurs tried to attract an even wider audience and consequently reformulates its grid around 4 main axes: live competition, tuning, tests and documentaries. Its main competitor was the Motors TV channel, which was available on

for a while. On 12 July 2018,

Mediawan Mediawan S.A. is a French media conglomerate and audiovisual international production & distribution group. It was founded on December 15, 2015, by Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse and Pierre-Antoine Capton under the legal form of a special-purpose a ...

, owner of

AB Groupe Mediawan Thematics (formerly known as AB Groupe) is a French television channel business and audiovisual distribution group in the field of broadcasting that is owned by Mediawan. History Mediawan Thematics had its roots under the name of AB P ...

, announced that it had signed an agreement with

TF1 TF1 (; standing for ''Télévision Française 1'') is a French commercial television network owned by TF1 Group, controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. TF1 is part ...

to launch the ''Automoto'' channel. In September 2018, AB Moteurs will be rebranded and will bear the name of the TF1 show broadcast every Sunday. The two audiovisual groups explain that "Automoto's ambition will be to offer the best in car and motorcycle lifestyle while keeping the flagship competitions such as the NASCAR Cup Series or the Paris Supercross. Many new magazines will be added to the network: a magazine dedicated to classic cars, motorcycles and tests, as well as other new products that will be unveiled at the World Car Show. The channel will be available from operators who already offer AB Moteurs, namely Canal, Bis Télévisions, Orange, Free, SFR, Bouygues Telecom, Molotov TV and Watch it.

Capital

AB Moteurs is owned by

SA and has a budget of €24 million, provided 50% by

Programmes

The programmes consist of practical documentaries about car ownership, whether precision (tuning) or general, but also show replays of motorsport events such as

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

, the DTM championships, Rally,

Moto GP Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the highest class of motorcycle road racing events held on road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held since the start ...

, etc. AB Moteurs shows live

Sprint Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the most prestigious stock car racing series in the United States. The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, ...

races uninterrupted with French (Pat Angeli and Philippe Chéreau) and Turkish commentary. Numerous clips of Sprint Cup Series races from recent seasons with Angeli's and Chéreau's excitable and enthusiastic commentary have been uploaded to

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

.2007 Daytona 500 Finish (Live French Commentary)
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Shows

*''V6'' : Car magazine presented by Stéphane Rotenberg. *''Plein Phares'' : Magazine to discover motorsport and watersport personalities presented by

Alexandre Debanne Alexandre Debanne (born 8 April 1960) is a French television presenter. Radio career Alexandre Debanne began his career at age 20 on FR3 Radio Centre (Bourges) and then with local radio stations. He became one of the famous radio presenters of ...

Broadcast

AB Moteurs was originally shown only on

, but is now available through a contract on French, Belgian, Luxembourgish, Monegasque and Swiss

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

and on

digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using Digital signal, digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an ...

References

External links

*
Programmes on AB Moteurs
*
Facebook fan page for Pat Angeli and Philippe Chéreau
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ab Moteurs Mediawan Thematics Television stations in France Television channels and stations established in 1996 1996 establishments in France French-language television stations Sports television networks in France Car-related mass media