AB Sports

AB Sports
Launched 23 December 1996 (1996-12-23)
Closed April 1999 (1999-04)
Owned by AB Groupe
Picture format 576i (4:3 SDTV)
Country France
Language French
Broadcast area France
Headquarters La Plaine Saint-Denis, France
Replaced by Pathé Sport

AB Sports was a French thematic sports television channel owned by AB Groupe, broadcast from December 23, 1996 to April 1999. It has been renamed Sport+ after it was acquired by Canal+ Group.

History

AB Sports was created by AB Groupe to be the sports channel of its future digital satellite package. It began broadcasting on 23 December 1996 with the launch of the AB Sat satellite package.

Being too expensive and generating few audiences because of its programming focused on foreign sports, AB Groupe sold 51% of the capital of AB Sports for 39 million Franc to Pathé, then launched thematic television channels.[1] Pathé renamed the channel Pathé Sport in May 1999.

Programming

With national sports broadcasting rights above average, AB Sports broadcast many international and foreign sports events. It had managed to quickly build a rich program by proposing in a grid from 8 am to midnight many competitions still available on the market like football championships of South America, Welsh Premier Division, Ligue Magnus, women's basketball and handball, Olympic disciplines, golf, boardsports and the most popular American sports. The channel also ran numerous magazines.

The channel opening was composed of images of different sports with the logo of the channel and the music song Jump.[2]

Distribution

AB Sports was broadcast via cable in the offer of Numericable and via satellite in the AB Sat package and then exclusively by CanalSatellite, allowing AB Sports to be received by more than one million subscribers.

References

  1. ↑ "Pathé prend une part majoritaire dans AB Sports, Communiqué du groupe Pathé, 5 novembre 1998 à 9h00". Archived from the original on 2006-10-21. Retrieved 2017-11-11.
  2. ↑ Indicatif d'ouverture d'antenne d'AB Sports en 1996
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.