Men & Motors

Men & Motors was a men's lifestyle television channel in the UK. It was the last remaining station operated by the former Granada Sky Broadcasting joint venture, set up by Granada Television (now part of ITV plc) and satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting in 1996. Although ITV plc is now the sole owner of GSB (since re-named ITV Digital Channels Limited), Sky will receive 49.5 per cent of any proceeds (net of liabilities) if Men & Motors is sold.

A possible merger with ITV4 had been on the cards, but in September 2007, ITV confirmed that it plans to dispose of Men & Motors. Men & Motors closed on 1 April 2010 to make way for on Freesat, Sky Digital and Virgin Media.

Carriage

From its launch, Men & Motors was only available with subscription television services. Men & Motors was part of the original line-up (as a "primary channel") for ONdigital, a Digital terrestrial television service part-owned by Granada. When ONdigital closed, Men & Motors left DTT and became available only through satellite and cable. On 1 November 2004, ITV took full control of GSB and shut down Plus, which only averaged 0.7% of its audience share before ITV3 replaced this ill-fated channel.

The channel really took off after the appointment of Gary Shoefield as director of programming.He quickly set about changing the presenters and the look and feel and took responsibility for both the acquisitions and the newly produced...
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