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 partly) run by the cable operators and certain networks ADSL. ABSAT has a stake on two digital terrestrial television channels (TMC and NT1). The company is chaired by Michele Cotta.

History

The company AB Groupe was launched in 1995 as the second satellite package in France (after the launch of CanalSat in 1992), as part of the shift from analogue to digital television. The package creates some big names in media, such as Claude Berda (current president of AB), who hired Christian Dutoit (member of CSA, former head of TF1, the production of Antenne 2, founder of many channels such as La Cinq, LCI and I>Télévision), Ghislain Achard (former head of the France Télévisions group until 2005) and Marc Sillam (former big name in cinema). The society only had a small market share in satellite television compared to CanalSat a few months before the innovation of many points, such as:

Satellite package

Bis Télévisions FRANCE : 1= TF1 France 2 France 3 NT1 France 5 M6 ARTE Direct 8 W9 TMC RTL9 NRJ 12 LCP-AN/Public Sénat France 4 BFM TV Mangas Virgin 17 Gulli AB1 AB moteurs Orange Sports Info Vidéoclick Escales Animaux Encyclopedia Canal Hollywood Toute l'Histoire Chasse et Pêche TV8 Mont-Blanc France Ô TV5 MONDE Action Ciné First Ciné Fx Ciné Polar XXL Dorcel TV ART Prime Sport ART Hikayat (séries) ART Movies (cinéma) AB Sat Belgique : AB3, AB4, AB1, RTL9, TMC, NT1, MANGAS, ANIMAUX, AB MOTEURS, XXL (22h30/05h), ESCALES, ENCYCLOPEDIA, FIT-TV, TOUTE L'HISTOIRE, DORCEL TV (24/24h), CINE FX, CINE FIRST, CINE POP, CINE POLAR, ACTION and CHASSE ET PECHE ABSat Europe et Moyen-Orient : AB1, RTL9, TMC, NT1, MANGAS, ANIMAUX, AB MOTEURS, XXL (22h30/05h), ESCALES, ENCYCLOPEDIA, FIT-TV, TOUTE L'HISTOIRE, DORCEL TV (24/24h), CINE FX, CINE FIRST, CINE POP, CINE POLAR, ACTION and CHASSE ET PECHE

Channels

General

For a long time, the increase in general channels has not translated to a similar acquisition of programmes, with the arrival of the command of Michèle Cotta in the board of AB Sat (In May 2006, Michèle Cotta rejoined the JLA group, the A in AB) and of the digitalisation of programmes which allowed the growth of the portfolio in programmes, the channels have operated a little with a level of coherence and the presence of the same series, films, and telefilms on all three channels.

Cinema

The AB Sat package is the first package to theme their cinema channels, an idea copied today by all other French packages. The original five channels offered were : Action, Crime, Cinema Palace, Life and Romance. Action didn't survive, and was replaced by the option of Passions on TPS in 1999, the other channels were also reformatted. In September 2002, AB Sat launched the Ciné Box package with Ciné FX, Ciné Polar, Ciné Comic and Ciné Box. The package was not successful, and two channels disappeared in 2004 : Ciné Comic and Ciné Box. The two other channels, Ciné FX and Ciné Polar were taken in by the cinema package of Canalsat and TPS. The most part of the cinema channels was shared equally on cable in France and Belgium.

Sport

Documentaries and true-life

Specialised

Former channels

Music

Sport

Cinema

Others