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| Country | France |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Nationwide |
| Headquarters | La Plaine Saint-Denis,France |
| Programming | |
| Language | French |
| Picture format | 1080i (HDTV) (HD feed downgraded toletterboxed576i forSDTVs) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Mediawan Thematics |
| History | |
| Launched | 26 March 1996; 29 years ago (1996-03-26) |
| Former names | Automobile (1996–1999) AB Moteurs (1999–2018) |
| Links | |
| Website | abmoteurs.fr |
Automoto la chaîne is a Frenchtelevision channel dedicated tomotorsports.[1]
The channel was created in March 1996 for theAB Sat package under the nameAutomobile as a channel dedicated to cars in all ways (collections, history of classic models, tracks, etc.).
Due to the same ofAB Sports to thePathé group in 1997, the channel was reformatted to fill the gap on theAB Sat package, and appeal to a young male audience. The channel was renamedAB Moteurs in 1998 and contained programmes around various motorsport: cars,bikes,aeroplanes and boats, broadcasting a number of races live, in competitions with the other French sports channels,Eurosport andSport+.
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 theMotors TV channel, which was available onAB Sat for a while.
On 12 July 2018,Mediawan, owner ofAB Groupe, announced that it had signed an agreement withTF1 to launch theAutomoto channel. In September 2018, AB Moteurs will be rebranded and will bear the name of the TF1 show broadcast every Sunday.[2]
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.[3]
AB Moteurs is owned byAB Sat SA and has a budget of €24 million, provided 50% byAB Groupe.
The programmes consist of practical documentaries about car ownership, whether precision (tuning) or general, but also show replays of motorsport events such asNASCAR, theDTM championships, Rally,Moto GP, etc.AB Moteurs shows liveNASCARSprint Cup Series 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 toYouTube.[4][5]
AB Moteurs was originally shown only onAB Sat, but is now available through a contract on French, Belgian, Luxembourgish, Monegasque and Swisscable and ondigital television.
