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The deal sees MTV team up with Atari, formerly Infogrames, which owns the rest of the channel in partnership with investment fund I-Partners.

Game One is a French-language 24-hour gaming channel, which reaches 3.5m homes on all cable and satellite platforms in France. Its core audience is 15- to 35-year-olds, which complements the audience of MTV's music and entertainment channels.

The channel offers interactive elements such as SMS chat, competitions, news, reviews of current games, games tips and a website.

The deal gives MTV its first foothold in the gaming market and it said it plans to roll out the channel across other parts of Europe.

Simon Guild, chief operating officer at MTV Networks Europe, said:

"Videogames and home entertainment are integral to European youth culture, so we see opportunities to expand Game One to other markets as a natural complement to our stable of youth and music brands.

"The alliance will enable Game One to take advantage of MTV Networks Europe's creative expertise and pan-European infrastructure, while Game One will bring its extensive experience of the videogames arena to our network. The partnership will also offer new opportunities to brands, who will now be able to laser-target the French youth marketing via a combination of MTV and Game One packages."

The deal is part of Viacom-owned MTVNE's global expansion plan, which has, in the last year, seen it launch 13 services in Europe, Asia and Latin America, including five MTV channels, six Nickelodeon services and one channel each for the VH1 and TMF brands.

The company has also bought TMF in the Netherlands and in Belgium, and Dutch childrens brand Kindernet in 2001.

Game One will continue to be run by its existing management team headed up by CEO Michael Sportouch, who reports to a board appointed by Atari and MTV.

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