On Monday 10th December 2001 a new TV-station will be launched in France, entitled 'Match-Télé'. It does not sound anything particularly interesting so far? However, it is when you find out the whole musical presentation of the channel has been composed by Jean Michel Jarre, it is more interesting.
Jean Michel has created an original and evolutionary sound design for the TV-channel. It is original by establishing a musical colour, radically different from other TV-stations. Evolutionary in the sense that all the jingles, for advertising, opening of the channel, program announcement, etc. will have a different atmosphere depending on the atmosphere at the time. For each melody, Jean Michel has created over 50 variations of the same melody, which is different in terms of sounds, accompaniments, interpretations, etc.
Jean Michel has composed all the jingles for Match-Télé (over 17 melodies), assisted by Francis Rimbert in the Croissy Studio, with Joachim Garraud responsible for production in the Square Prod studio.
Match-Télé, a spin-off channel stemming from the the universally known magazine Paris Match, will start broadcasting on Monday 10th December on channel 10 on CanalSatellite, with negotiations already underway for the channel to feature on other satellite and cable operators. Like the magazine Paris-Match, published by Hachette Filipacchi Médias (HFM), the TV-channel presents itself as a "A channel of entertainment and information, above all focusing on events and personal experiences from stars and celebrities, as well as from unknown people."
Equipped with a budget of approximately 80 million French Francs for 2002, the channel will be broadcasting 19 hours of programmes daily, of which just over 3 hours will be new broadcasts. The channel will broadcast from 8.00 am to 3.00 am, and hopes for positive turnover in 2005.
Jean Michel Jarre was asked to assist in this project by his long-time friend and director of Match-Télé, Jean-Louis Remilleux, producer of many French TV shows and author of the Jean Michel Jarre biography in 1987. Jean Michel Jarre has been working intensely on this project with Guillaume Frisquet, artistic director of Match-Télé.