Dormancy and liquidation; Music channels are owned by the Trace Group Kids and family movies and general entertainment channels are owned by Narrative Capital
CSC Media Group, formerly known as Chart Show Channels (CSC), was a British cable television broadcasting company. It was a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Television. The company dissolved on 27 November 2019.[1]
CSC Media Group was named after the now defunct UK music show The Chart Show, which ran on ITV and Channel 4 for twelve years. CSC evolved from the original Chart Show production company Video Visuals, to Chart Show Channels, which was then acquired in 2007 by private equity group Veronis Suhler Stevenson.[2]
Until Sony acquired the company, they owned sixteen channels, all of which are advertising-funded and free to air (FTA).
History
Chart Show Channels was founded in May 2002. The company's first channel - Chart Show TV, launched on Sky on 16 September that year, with high viewing figures within its first week of launch.[3] On 14 October a sister network, Chart Shop TV, was launched. This network allowed viewers to purchase CDs and music-related merchandise. It aired on the same broadcast capacity as Chart Show, and aired from 4:00–6:00 am early in the morning during Chart Show's downtime.
In March 2003, Chart Shop TV closed, and its broadcast capacity was used for Video Vault, once again broadcasting late-at-night during Chart Show TV's downtime.[4] On 30 May the company's first children's network - Toons & Tunes soft-launched before fully launching as Pop in July. Video Vault would fully launch that month as The Vault, moving into Pop's broadcast capacity as a nighttime service. In September, a sister channel to Pop - Pop Plus, was launched, which functioned similarly to a timeshift service, although it didn't always air the same programmes as its sister channel. On 17 September The Vault moved out of Pop's capacity space and gained its own 24-hour slot.[5]
In July 2004, the company's next music channel B4 was launched in Pop Plus' broadcast capacity, broadcasting in its space at night. Pop Plus later re-launched as the pre-school-oriented Tiny Pop at the end of the month.
In 2006, British Sky Broadcasting sold their three music channels Bliss (previously The Amp), Scuzz, and Flaunt to CSC. Formerly encrypted, CSC made the channels FTA like the rest of their channels.
In 2007, they launched five channels; two of which were timeshift channels: Pop +1 and Tiny Pop +1. The third channel was a new children's channel called Pop Girl, aimed at a young female audience. The fourth channel was AnimeCentral, which time-shares with Pop Girl, and shows animated series for an older audience; it was the first dedicated channel in the UK for anime broadcasting. The fifth was Minx, which was a spin-off music channel from the Minx slot shown on Chart Show TV. Minx was later replaced by NME TV, which is a dedicated indie music channel.
In 2008, they rebranded B4 to Flava after showing a mix of R&B music for a few months prior to this in March. The channel also went 16:9 widescreen prior to the rebrand, to match the other CSC music channels. On Tuesday 6 May, they launched Flaunt +1, a 1-hour timeshifted version of Flaunt. This was their first-ever timeshifted music channel, and is also the second to launch in the UK, after MTV One +1 (now MTV +1) launched in February 2008, replacing MTV Flux. On Monday 12 May, six days after launching their first music timeshift, Bliss +1, their second music channel timeshift, was launched and their third music channel timeshift, Scuzz +1 launched in November 2008. It soon closed, and the satellite transponder space was then used by NHK World TV. On Monday 19 May, they launched their fourth kids channel, replacing Pop +1. Kix! kit started at 06:00 hours, showing a mixture of cartoons, extreme sports, as well as music, aimed for boys, similar to another kids channel, Jetix. Currently, it broadcasts from 06:00 to 23:30 daily. Pop Girl +1, a 1-hour timeshifted version of Pop Girl launched on Wednesday 4 June, replacing their first music channel timeshift, Flaunt +1, which had only been on air just short of four weeks. AnimeCentral has been replaced with Showcase TV on 27 August 2008, which simulcasts a mixture of channels such as Pop Girl, Chart Show TV, True Movies 2, along with AnimeCentral programming block with repeats of Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
CSC was the majority owner of Moving Movies Ltd, with True Movies 1 being the first channel from the company, it launched on 8 April 2005 and was joined by True Movies 2 in March 2006. Both channels showed mainly made-for-TV movies from a range of genres, all based on real-life events and people.
They were announced as being one of the channel providers providing DVB-H channels in a 16 channel trial of the technology in Oxford,[citation needed] a system which would have carried Chart Show TV.
CSC was one of the parties involved in bidding for a low-bandwidth, 18-hour-a-day stream on the UK's digital terrestrial television (DTT) system in November 2005.[6]
In May 2012, CSC launched BuzMuzik, a new music television channel driven by mobile phone (text/mms) and social media.
In February 2013, CSC launched True Entertainment +1, a one-hour timeshift of True Entertainment. It was replaced by True Drama on 4 June 2013.
On 22 July 2013, Kix Power launched, replacing Pop Girl +1 on Sky. That was rebranded as Kix +1 on 1 October 2013, rebranded as Kix Power again on Christmas 2013 and Easter 2014; and was renamed Kix + on 22 April 2014. This timeshift was replaced with Pop +1 on 14 July 2014.
In late 2013, CSC purchased Starz TV, which was a sole channel by Cloud Television One Limited, following the collapse of Mushroom TV and the sale of Mushroom's all other channels to All Around the World Productions. In April 2014, CSC closed BuzMuzik, and replaced it with a revival of True Entertainment +1. The channel also closed for CSC to broadcast Starz TV.
On 26 June 2014, Sony Pictures Television, Sony's TV programming and network unit, said it would buy CSC and its 16 channels for £107 million ($180 million).[7] The deal was completed on 15 August 2014.[8] All the channels were transferred to Sony Pictures Television, and the company went dormant.
On 13 December 2018, their four remaining music channels were sold to the TRACE Group.[9]
On 27 November 2019, the company was liquidated and dissolved.[1]
As of 2024, Pop, Pop +1, Pop Max and Pop Max +1 are the only CSC channels to still exist, as Tiny Pop became a digital service and the rest have closed, but did return in August, making second chance, at this time relaunched by Narrative Entertainment.
Sold to Trace Group, which eventually closed it on 27 April 2023, which renamed it Trace Urban (it was originally Chart Show TV) on 1 November 2019 and eventually renamed Trace Hits on 5 January 2021 and closed on 27 April 2023
Pop is a British free-to-air children's television channel owned by Narrative Entertainment UK Limited, targeting audiences aged 6 to 10. Launched on 29 May 2003 as Toons&Tunes by Chart Show Channels (CSC) Media Group, it later took on its current name and was sold to Sony Pictures Television, who in turn sold it and its local channels to Narrative Entertainment UK Limited in 2021.
True Movies was a British free-to-air television channel. It was also distributed in Africa on DStv. It is the first channel from Moving Movies Ltd., majority-owned by CSC Media Group.
Tiny Pop is a British free-to-air television channel, owned by Narrative Entertainment UK Limited. Broadcast on many of the major digital television platforms in the UK, Tiny Pop, which was launched on 8 September 2003 as Pop Plus, and shows, its target audience is children aged 7 and under. The station broadcasts principally animated content sourced from various distributors.
Scuzz was a British 24-hour rock and metal music television channel owned and operated by Sony Pictures Television. It was launched on 17 April 2003 and went on to be the highest-rated rock TV station on the Sky satellite platform, available in over 12 million homes in the UK and Ireland. The channel was closed on 15 November 2018.
Trace Hits was a British free-to-air music channel owned by Trace Group.
Trace Vault was a British free-to-air music and entertainment television channel owned by Trace Group.
A timeshift channel is a television channel carrying time-delayed reruns of its "parent" channel's programming. This channel runs alongside its parent: the term timeshift does not refer to a network broadcasting at a later time to reflect a local time zone, unless the parent is also available. Often the timeshift channel's branding and advertising will be the same as that of the parent, with the channel number and respective timing being the only distinction between the two, but some, such as Channel 4 +1 in the United Kingdom and TVNZ 1+1 in New Zealand, will overlay a different digital on-screen graphic to distinguish the two channels. A few channels, like Film4 +1 in the United Kingdom, do not carry a digital on-screen graphic on its regular channel or its timeshift channel.
Flaunt was an electronic dance music television channel. It was a captivating destination for dance music enthusiasts, owned and operated by the CSC Media Group. This esteemed channel focused on broadcasting an array of music videos from diverse dance genres, such dance, techno, trance, disco, eurodance, house & dance-pop along with classic dance hits from the previous decades.
True Movies 2 was a British free-to-air television channel that was owned by Moving Movies Ltd., majority owned by CSC Media Group. It was launched on 20 March 2006 and was a sister channel from True Movies which was launched on 29 April 2005. True Movies 2 initially broadcast for two hours in the early morning, from 4am to 6am by timesharing with Pop, a children's cartoon channel. The service was later extended to 24 hours a day.
Bliss was a British music television channel owned and operated by the CSC Media Group, formerly known as Chart Show Channels.
Starz TV was a British free-to-air music channel, owned by TRACE Group.
Pop Girl was a free-to-air children's television channel in the United Kingdom, owned by CSC Media Group, a company associated with the makers of The Chart Show, a television programme that had previously been on Channel 4 and ITV. It broadcast cartoons, live action and pop music videos on Sky and Freesat. Its target audience was 7 to 12-year-old girls.
Anime Central was a British television channel owned by CSC Media Group. The channel launched on 13 September 2007. It was first announced on 5 August 2007, though its license first appeared on the Ofcom website in January. The channel ran from 9pm to 6am, free-to-air on Sky's Digital TV Platform, channel 199; and it was the only channel broadcast in the UK and Ireland which was dedicated solely to showing anime.
Pop Max is a British free-to-air children's television channel in the United Kingdom, owned by Narrative Entertainment UK Limited. As of June 2014, it broadcasts cartoons, sci-fi, action and adventure series and anime on Sky and on Freeview. Its target audience is 6 to 15-year-olds.
Showcase TV was a television channel in the United Kingdom currently run by Information TV and is used to offer smaller specialist channels a place to showcase their programmes, sometimes leading to a full channel launch. It is also used as a placeholder channel and has been used to hold on to lucrative EPG slots from defunct channels which are then sold on at a later date. It has ceased and restarted many times over the years.
True Entertainment was a British free-to-air television channel that was launched on 3 August 2009, replacing Showcase TV. The change was originally scheduled to happen on 1 July 2009, but a late change put the change "on hold until further notice". While the bulk of its programming were movies, similar to sister channels True Movies 1 and True Movies 2, the channel aimed to establish itself as a general entertainment channel.
Freeview is the name for the collection of free-to-air services on the digital terrestrial television platform in the United Kingdom. The service was launched at 5am on 30 October 2002 and is jointly operated by its five equal shareholders – BBC, ITV, Channel 4, BSkyB and transmitter operator Arqiva. This article documents the history of the Freeview service, from its inception up to the present.
Great! TV is a British-English language general entertainment channel in the United Kingdom owned by Narrative Entertainment UK Limited. It originally launched as Sony Entertainment Television on 7 April 2011. However, it was closed on 6 February 2018 and replaced by Sony Crime Channel. It was brought back for a second time on 10 September 2019 when it replaced True Entertainment. The relaunched Sony Channel had different idents and programming than the former due to inheriting some programming from its predecessor True Entertainment and on 25 May 2021, following Narrative Capital's acquisition of Sony's channels, it was rebranded as Great! TV.
Trace Latina is a music channel specialising mostly in urban Latin music. It broadcasts in the United Kingdom via the Channelbox streaming platform on Freeview UK channel 271 and still in France.
This is a timeline of UK children's programming on non-BBC and ITV channels.
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