Men & Motors

Men & Motors
Launched	1 October 1996
Closed	1 April 2010
Owned by	ITV Digital Channels Ltd (ITV plc)
Picture format	576i (16:9 SDTV)
Audience share	~0.0% (Final figures from March 2010, BARB)
Formerly called	Granada Men & Motors (1996-2001)
Sister channel(s)	ITV2 ITV3 ITV4
Website	www.menandmotors.co.uk
Availability (at time of closure)
Satellite
Freesat	Channel 450
Sky Digital	Channel 178
Astra 2D	10758V 22000 5/6
Cable
Virgin Media	Channel 280
WightCable	Channel 45/121
Streaming media
TVCatchup	Watch live (UK only)

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 renamed 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 planned to dispose of Men & Motors. Men & Motors closed on 1 April 2010 to make way for ITV HD on Freesat, Sky Digital and Virgin Media.

From its launch, Men & Motors was only available with subscription television services. It was part of the original line-up (as a "primary channel") for ITV Digital, 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 programmes.

The channel was split into 2 distinctive halves with Motors content before 11pm and Adult content thereafter.

Shoefield brought Jordan (Katie Price) to the Adult part of the channel along with Jo Guest, Catherine McQueen, Mike Reid, Roy "Chubby" Brown, Garry Bushell and James Whale.