CSC Media Group

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CSC Media Group, formerly known as Chart Show Channels (CSC), was a British-Irish cable television broadcasting company. It was a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Television. The company dissolved on 27 November 2019.^[1]

Background[]

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 , to Chart Show Channels, which was then acquired in 2007 by private equity group Veronis Suhler Stevenson.^[2]

Until Sony accuired the company , they owned sixteen channels, all of which are advertising funded and free to air (FTA).

History[]

Until May 2005, their only output was music television, with their three fully owned music channels Chart Show TV (now Trace Hits), The Vault (now Trace Vault), and B4 (later Flava), and two children's channels Pop (previously Toons & Tunes), and Tiny Pop (previously Pop Plus), which also both screened music videos along with cartoons.

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 is 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.^[3]

Like The Box Plus Network and All Around the World Productions channels, all of CSC's music channels now broadcast 24 hours a day.

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. Kix Power was renamed as POP Power, and POP Power replaces Pop Max on Virgin TV.

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).^[4] The deal was completed on 15 August 2014.^[5] All the channels were transferred to Sony Pictures Television

On 13 December 2018, their four remaining music channels were sold to the TRACE Group.^[6]

On 27 November 2019, the company was liquidated and dissolved.^[1]

List of channels owned by CSC Media Group[]

Former (Sold to Sony and then Narrative Capital)[]

Defunct[]

Note: former channels in light red closed before the start of Sony's deal.

References[]