M6 (TV channel)

M6

Country	France and Switzerland
Ownership
Owner	Métropole Télévision (51,2%) RTL Group (48,8%)

Métropole 6, known popularly as simply M6, is a French television service owned by a company called Métropole Télévision. M6 broadcasts an over-the-air SECAM signal, and is also carried on the Atlantic Bird 3 broadcast satellite. M6 also broadcasts a digital signal to Switzerland via the W3A broadcast satellite. As of 2004, it is the second most-watched private television service in France, after TF1.

Other TV channels in the M6 portfolio include digital terrestrial channel W9 and digital cable channels M6 Music Hits, M6 Music Black, M6 Music Rock and Fun TV.

History

M6 launched on March 1, 1987 at 11:15 a.m. CET taking the place of TV6.

M6's current on-air image suggests that it tailors its service to adolescent and young-adult demographics. Programmes on its schedule include:

• American TV Shows: Desperate Housewives ; NCIS (NCIS: enquêtes spéciales) ; Prison Break ; Medium (Médium) ; My Name Is Earl (Earl) ; NUMB3RS ; Bones ; Scrubs ; The Unit (The Unit : commando d'élite) ; Stargate Atlantis ; Nip/Tuck ; Californication ; Kyle XY ; Everybody Hates Chris (Tout le monde déteste Chris) ; Supernatural and Smallville.

• These American TV Shows were shown on M6: The 4400 (Les 4 400) ; Jericho ; The Dead Zone (Dead Zone) ; Stargate SG-1 ; Charmed ; Malcolm in the Middle (Malcolm) ; Friends ; Alias ; Sex and the City ; Veronica Mars ; Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Buffy contre les vampires) ; The X-Files (X-Files, aux frontières du réel) ; Ally McBeal ; Roswell ; Profiler ; The Pretender (Le Caméléon) ; The Sentinel ; Sliders (Sliders, les mondes parallèles) ; Hope & Faith (La Star de la famille) ; 8 Simple Rules (Touche pas à mes filles) ; My Wife and Kids (Ma famille d'abord) ; Still Standing (Une famille presque parfaite) ; Early Edition (Demain à la Une) ; Wildfire ; Once and Again (Deuxième chance) ; Relic Hunter (Sydney Fox, l'aventurière) ; Medical Investigation (NIH : alertes médicales) ; Tru Calling (Tru Calling : compte à rebours) ; Commander in Chief ; 1-800-Missing (Missing : disparus sans laisser de trace) ; Dark Skies (Dark Skies : l'impossible vérité) ; The Inside (The Inside : dans la tête des tueurs) ; Killer Instinct ; Vanished ; John Doe ; LAX ; Jake 2.0 ; Blind Justice ; Threshold (Threshold : premier contact) ; Summerland ; Beautiful People ; Young Americans ; Special Unit 2 ; The Evidence (The Evidence : les preuves du crime) ; South Beach ; L.A. Heat (Los Angeles Heat) ; Married… with Children (Mariés, deux enfants) ; The Cosby Show (Cosby Show) ; Who's the Boss? (Madame est servie) ; The Nanny (Une nounou d'enfer) ; Little House on the Prairie (La Petite Maison dans la prairie) and Bewitched (Ma sorcière bien-aimée).

• American programmes: High School Musical ; America's Got Talent (Incroyable Talent).

• British TV shows: Primeval.

• These British TV Shows were shown on M6: Footballers' Wives (Femme$ de footballeurs) ; Queer as Folk ; Totally Frank ; Bugs ; and Hex (Hex : la malédiction).
• These Canadian TV shows were shown on M6: Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye (Sue Thomas, l'œil du FBI) and Falcon Beach.
• Investigative journalism shows, such as Capital, Zone interdite and Enquête Exclusive.
• Long-lasting short programmes, such as Turbo, CinéSix, and E=M6, and music videos.

In 2001, M6 became the first French television service to broadcast reality programming. Its first programme of this genre was Loft Story, and was highly watched. The president of TF1 at the time, Étienne Mougeotte, promised that TF1 would never air any reality programming. However, several months later, TF1 signed a contract with Endemol to air such programming. Endemol is the same company that created Loft Story for M6.

M6 is one of the only television services in France to have science-fiction programming as part of its regular schedule. Most supernatural dramas are shown on Saturday nights in what M6 calls "la trilogie du samedi".

Current programmes

• 6 minutes (local and national editions) and 12:50 (national edition), Afternoon and evening news.
• Zone Interdite, Newsmagazine
• Capital, Economy-oriented newsmagazine.
• Enquête Exclusive , Investigation magazine.
• 66 minutes weekly news magazine.
• Turbo, motor magazine.
• D&CO , magazine of decoration.
• Chef ,la recette, culinary magazine
• Hit machine, musical show.
• M6 Kid, program for children.
• Pekin Express, French adaptation of CBS show "The Amazing Race".
• Nouvelle star, (French adaptation of Pop Idol) reality television
• Kaamelott
• Off Prime

Past programmes

• Culture Pub, a tv advertisements analysing show
• Graines de star, a talents contests show
• Loft Story (French adaptation of Big Brother), M6 and the first French reality show
• Morning Live, Morning show
• Caméra Café, Comedy
• Nouvelle Star (French adaptation of Pop Idol)
• Êtes-vous plus fort qu'un élève de 10 ans ?, French adaptation of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Note

1 Source: Médiamétrie

External links

• Official Site Template:Fr icon
• M6 news Template:Fr icon
• TV idents since 1987 Template:Fr icon
• TV Idents of M6