Business

McDonald’s TV added to menu

The question of the moment at 700 pioneering McDonald’s restaurants: You want TV with those fries?

Not just any television, but the custom-made M Channel, formulated and tested with the same attention to detail that made Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets cultural icons.

The channel’s aim is to offer exclusive content to entertain customers. More ambitiously, it also intends to create promotional and sales opportunities for record companies and others who want to dive into McDonald’s vast customer pool.

Lee Edmondson, who has spent more than eight years developing the concept for McDonald’s and years beforehand pondering it, said the fast-food chain is thinking way outside the TV box.

The M channel is akin to a broadcast network with its own news, entertainment and sportscasts localized for cities and even neighborhoods, he said.

Among those who have enlisted as content providers are producer Mark Burnett (“Survivor,” ‘‘The Voice”), ReelzChannel and broadcast stations. A range of advertisers, minus other restaurants and perhaps alcoholic beverages, will be welcome.