Mediawan Thematics
Mediawan Thematics (formerly known as AB Groupe) is a French television channel business and audiovisual distribution group in the field of broadcasting that is owned by Mediawan.
History
Mediawan Thematics had its roots under the name of AB Productions which it was founded in 1977 by Jean-Luc Azoulay and Claude Berda as a music production company, and in 1987 went into the world of television.
In 1991, AB Productions created their own music record publishing label named AB Disques who had published their own music videos.
In December 1995, AB Groupe launched their first television channel named AB Channel 1 (now AB1).
In July 1996, AB Productions announced that they've expanded their catalogue by acquiring Pierre Grimblat's French production company Hamster Productions and its parent company The Hamster Group which had merged with AB Productions to become the biggest French television production company with Hamster Productions became a subsidiary of AB Productions.
In July 1999, AB Productions announced that their co-founders Jean-Luc Azoulay and Claude Berda had professionally separated and had split the AB Productions company into two companies which were
In late-January 2016, AB Groupe announced that they've acquired Pascale Breugnot's production company Ego Productions.
In January 2017, it was announced that French special acquisition group Mediawan had entered exclusive negotiations to acquire AB Groupe along with their channels and four production companies along with their own distribution division AB International Distribution from its co-founder Claude Berda who had a 53% stake of the company alongside media company TF1 Group who owned a 33.5% stake, for €270 million in order for the former to build a European premium content leader and an audiovisual production and distribution group. The deal could hand over AB Groupe's production companies and their distribution division to Mediawan Two months later in late-March of that same year, AB Groupe announced that French special acquisition group Mediawan had completed their acquisition of AB Groupe along with their channels, four production companies and their international distribution division from its co-founder Claude Berda who had a 53% stake of the company alongside media company TF1 Group who owned a 33.5% stake with AB Groupe becoming a fully owned subsidiary of Mediawan, marking Mediawan's first step into the premium production and distribution activities.
On 11 October 2018 AB Groupe was rebranded to Mediawan Thematics after the purchase by Mediawan in 2017.
Television
Former channels
AB sold many channels, notably the free national channels TMC and NT1 taken over by TF1 when they were the main shareholder of AB Groupe.