M6 (TV channel)

M6
Launched	1 March 1987 (1987-03-01)
Owned by	M6 Group
Picture format	576i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV)
Audience share	9.6% (March 2017 (2017-03), Médiamétrie)
Slogan	La vie en mieux (Making life better)
Country	France
Language	French
Headquarters	Neuilly-sur-Seine
Replaced	TV6 France (1986–1987)
Website	www.m6.fr
Availability
Terrestrial
TNT	Channel 6 (HD) Channel 56 (SD)
Satellite
Canalsat	Channel 6 (SD/HD) Channel 504 (HD) Channel 704 (SD)
Cable
NOS(Portugal)	Channel 227
IPTV
Canalsat	Channel 6 (SD/HD) Channel 504 (HD)

M6 (pronounced [ɛm sis]), also known as Metropole Television, is the most profitable private national French television channel^[1][2] and the third most watched television network in the French-speaking world.^[3] M6 is the head channel of the M6 Group media empire^[4] that owns several TV channels, magazines, publications, movie production and media-related firms etc. It is owned by RTL Group.

Other TV channels in the M6 portfolio include digital terrestrial channels W9, 6ter, and digital cable channels Téva, Paris Première TF6, Série Club, M6 Music, M6 Music Black, M6 Music Club, Girondins TV and M6 Boutique & Co.

History

M6 launched on 1 March 1987 at 11:15 am CET taking the place of TV6 France.

M6's current on-air brand image suggests that it tailors its service to teenagers and young-adult demographics. Its current programs lineup include:

• French TV shows: Les Bleus, Scènes de Ménages, Vous les femmes
• French TV programs : Capital, Zone Interdite, Enquête Exclusive, Top Chef, Un dîner presque parfait, 100% Mag, 66 Minutes, Recherche Appartement ou Maison, L'amour est dans le pré, Maison à vendre, On ne choisit pas ses voisins, Belle toute nue, Nouveau Look pour une nouvelle vie, Hits Machines, M6 Boutique, LE 1945 and LE 1245 (news), Top tendance, Le meilleur patissier de france, Danse avec les stars, Morning Live, ...
• American TV shows: Blue Bloods ; Elementary ; Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (Esprits criminels : Unité sans frontières) ; Hawaii Five-0 (Hawaii 5-0) ; When Calls the Heart (Le coeur a ses raisons) ; Modern Family ; How to Get Away with Murder (Murder) ; NCIS: New Orleans (NCIS: Nouvelle Orléans) ; New Girl ; Quantico ; Reign (Reign : Le Destin d'une reine) ; Rosewood ; Scorpion ; Good Witch (Un soupçon de magie) ; Once Upon A Time ; NCIS (NCIS: enquêtes spéciales) ; NCIS: Los Angeles ; Prison Break ; Bones ; Supernatural and Secrets and Lies (Secrets and Lies : l'affaire Tom Murphy) ; The X-Files (X-Files, aux frontières du réel) ; 24: Legacy ; Bull ; Code Black ; MacGyver
• These American TV Shows were previously shown on M6: Smallville ;Scrubs ; The Unit (The Unit : commando d'élite) ;Stargate Atlantis ; Nip/Tuck ; Californication ; Kyle XY ; Everybody Hates Chris (Tout le monde déteste Chris) ;Terra Nova ; Desperate Housewives ;Lie to Me ;Medium (Médium) ; My Name Is Earl (Earl) ; NUMB3RS ; Charmed ; The 4400 (Les 4 400) ; Jericho ; The Dead Zone (Dead Zone) ; Stargate SG-1 ; Malcolm in the Middle (Malcolm) ; Friends ; Alias ; Sex and the City ; Veronica Mars ; Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Buffy contre les vampires) ; 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); The Simpsons (Les Simpson) ; Bewitched (Ma sorcière bien-aimée) ; The Wonder Years (Les annees coup de coeur) and Family Affair (Cher Oncle Bill) .
• American programs: High School Musical ; Camp Rock ; America's Got Talent (with its own version : La France a un incroyable talent), American Idol (La Nouvelle Star), KaBlam! (KarToon (M6 version))
• British TV shows: Primeval ; Secret Diary of a Call Girl (Journal intime d'une call girl).
• British TV programs: Britain's Got Talent (with its own version : La France a un incroyable talent), Pop Idol (with its own version : Nouvelle Star), The X-Factor (with its own version), Wife Swap
• These British TV shows were previously 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 programs, such as Turbo, CinéSix, and E=M6, as well as numerous music videos.

In 2001, M6 became the first national French television network to broadcast reality programming. Its first program 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 were shown on Saturday nights in what M6 called "la Trilogie du Samedi" (The Saturday Trilogy)

Logos

• January 28, 1986–February 28, 1986 (pre-launch): Before the launch on March 1, 1986, M6 was first known as RTL6 with this pre-launch logo, which first appeared in a pre-launch poster detailing the launch of an upcoming called TV6 France. The logo consists of a purple rectangle bearing the "RTL" wordmark at the top and the "6" numeral at the bottom.
• March 1, 1986–February 28, 1987: M6 was launched on March 1, 1986 as TV6 France. Its first logo consists of the "TV6" wordmark which is made up of shapes, by having the "T" being coloured dark blue and are made by two teal rectangles and two red squares, the "V" is made by a red triangle, an italic purple rectangle and a yellow short italic rectangle, and the "6" is made by a red ball, an pink cursive line, and a short teal cursive line. This logo was short-lived.
• March 1, 1987–May 31, 1987: On March 1, 1987, TV6 France was replaced by M6. Its first logo consisted of the letter "M" made up of metal being coloured in teal with the "6" numeral which is coloured red, it appears to the right of the letter "M". At the same time, a line appears in the center of the logo and the "Metropole Television" wordmark appears at the bottom of the logo.
• June 1, 1987–August 31, 1987: On June 1, 1987, M6 redesigned its logo which was slightly modified; the letter "M" was recoloured turquoise instead of teal. At the same time, the line grows a little bigger and the "6" numeral gets coloured more red as it drops the classic handwritten style and are instead using the "Future" typeface. However, the "Metropole Television" wordmark are removed from the logo.
• September 1, 1987–August 31, 1999: On September 1, 1987, M6 abandoned the black backgroubd and removed the line away from the logo as the letter "M" removes its metal elements and turns into an abstract letter "M" by changing its color into grey. At the same time, the "6" numeral gets moved from the right of the top of the letter "M" to the top.
• September 1, 1999–February 13, 2003: On September 1, 1999, the letter "M" changed its color from grey to black but the numeral's red color was retained. At the same time, the channel launched a new identity, with a new set of idents.

• February 14, 2003–March 5, 2007: On February 14, 2003, M6 remade its logo which began to appear in various colous. This time, we see the logo in 3D.
• March 6, 2007–November 29, 2009: On March 6, 2007, M6 renewed its logo again by making it become more gradient and getting more 3D effect. This logo was introduced to celebrate M6's 20th anniversary. Meanwhile, its rival STS are still using its 2005 logo until September 2007.
• November 30, 2009–November 15, 2015: On November 30, 2009, M6 launched a new logo. The letter "M" was coloured white while the "6" numeral's red color was retained. By October 18, 2010, a new set of idents were launched onto the screen.
• November 16, 2015–present: On November 16, 2015, to commemorate the victims of the Paris attacks, M6 adopted its current logo that consists of the 2009 logo, shown in 3D and made in CGI.

• 
  January 28, 1986 - February 28, 1986 (pre-launch)
• 
  March 1, 1986 - February 28, 1987
• 
  March 1, 1987 - May 31, 1987
• 
  June 1, 1987 - August 31, 1987
• 
  September 1, 1987 - August 31, 1999
• 
  September 1, 1999 - February 13, 2003
• 
  February 14, 2003 - March 5, 2007
• 
  March 6, 2007 - November 29, 2009
• 
  HD logo used from October 30, 2008 to October 17, 2010
• 
  November 30, 2009 - November 15, 2015
• 
  HD logo used from October 18, 2010 to December 7, 2015
• 
  November 16, 2015 - present
• 
  HD logo used from December 8, 2015 to present

Programs as of 2016

News

• Le 12:45 (national edition) and 19:45 (national edition), afternoon and evening news.
• Zone Interdite, France's most influential Newsmagazine^[5]
• 66 Minutes weekly news magazine.
• Capital, Economy-oriented newsmagazine.
• Enquête Exclusive, Investigation magazine.

Show and reality show

• Les reines du shopping
• X Factor
• Ice show
• Nouvelle star, (French adaptation of Pop Idol) reality television (until 2011, then it moved on D8)
• L'amour est dans le pré, French adaptation of Farmer Wants a Wife
• D&CO , homestyle show.
• E=M6, science magazine.
• Top Chef, French adaptation of Top Chef
• Belle toute nue, the French equivalent of Channel 4's How to Look Good Naked.
• Turbo, motor magazine.
• Chef, la recette, culinary magazine
• Vocation Medecin, health magazine
• Hit Machine, musical show.
• M6 Kid, program for children.
• Pekin Express, French adaptation of Dutch show Peking Express.
• Off Prime
• Accès Privé, entertainment news magazine
• Un dîner presque parfait, the French adaptation of Come Dine With Me
• Nouveau look pour une nouvelle vie, fashion magazine
• On ne choisit pas ses voisins, family magazine
• La France a un incroyable talent, the French adaptation of Britain's Got Talent
• Le meilleur pâtissier de France, the French adaptation of The Great British Bake Off
• Le choix, the French adaptation of The Taste.
• Cauchemar en cuisine, the French adaptation of Kitchen Nightmares.

Series

• 90210 Beverly Hills : Nouvelle Génération
• Blue Bloods
• Body of Proof
• Bones
• Burn Notice
• Californication
• Desperate Housewives
• Drop Dead Diva
• Earl
• En Famille (French creation)
• FBI : Duo très spécial
• Glee
• Hawaii 5-0
• Journal intime d'une call girl
• Justified
• Kaamelott (french creation)
• L'Homme de la situation (French creation)
• La Méthode Claire (French creation)
• Le Transporteur (French-Canadian creation)
• Lie to Me
• Ma famille d'abord
• Ma femme, ma fille, deux bébés (French creation)
• Médium
• Modern Family
• NCIS : Enquêtes spéciales
• NCIS Los Angeles
• New Girl
• Numb3rs
• Once Upon a Time
• Ringer
• Scènes de ménages (French creation)
• Scrubs
• Soda (French creation)
• Sons of Anarchy
• Supernatural
• Terra Nova
• The Finder
• The Glades
• The Good Wife
• un gars une fille
• Un, dos, tres
• Under the Dome^[6]
• Victoire Bonnot (French creation)
• Wes et Travis

Future programs

• J'ai décidé d'être heureux, coaching magazine
• Top Chef : masters
• Les Nannys, coaching magazine
• Le transporteur, french serie (new season)
• Cynical Cops !, new french serie

Past programs

• Super Nanny
• 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
• Les colocataires (Roommates)a show similar to Loft Story.
• Les Bleus (2006-2010) Police series about five rookies learning the ropes.
• Morning Live, Morning show
• Caméra Café, Comedy
• Nouvelle Star (French adaptation of American Idol)
• Êtes-vous plus fort qu'un élève de 10 ans ?, French adaptation of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
• Rubí rebelde, Venezuelan telenovela
• Total Wipeout (French adaptation of Wipeout)
• Stargate SG-1 The series has been fully aired between 18 September 1998 and 8 December 2007.
• Stargate Atlantis The first two seasons aired between 15 April 2005 and 29 July 2006.

See also

• List of television stations in France

Note

1 Source: Médiamétrie

References

External links

• Official website (in French)
• M6 Replay