CSC Media Group

CSC Media Group (formerly known as Chart Show Channels) is a British-Irish cable television broadcasting company that is a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Television.

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 Video Visuals, to Chart Show Channels, of which was acquired in 2007 by private equity group Veronis Suhler Stevenson.^[1]

They own 15 channels all of which are advertising funded and FTA. (Bliss, Scuzz and Flaunt were previously encrypted in NDS while they were owned by British Sky Broadcasting).

History

Until May 2005, their only output was music television, with their three fully owned music channels Chart Show TV, The Vault and B4 (now Flava), plus the three music channels Bliss (previously The Amp), Scuzz, and Flaunt (now Chart Show Dance), which were owned by BSkyB but run by CSTV. Their two children's channels Pop (previously Toons & Tunes) and Tiny Pop (previously Pop Plus) also both show music videos along with cartoons.

In 2006 CSC Media Group took full ownership of Bliss, Scuzz, and Flaunt from BSkyB. They made them 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 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 widescreen prior to the rebrand, to fall into line with the other CSC music channels. On Tuesday May 6, they launched Flaunt +1, a 1hour 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 May 12, 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 used by NHK World TV. On Monday May 19, they launched their fourth kids channel, replacing Pop +1. Kix! kit started at 6:00am, showing a mixture of cartoons, extreme sports as well as music, aimed for boys, similar to another kids channel, Jetix. Currently, it broadcasts from 6:00am to 11:30pm daily. Pop Girl +1, a 1-hour timeshifted version of Pop Girl launched on Wednesday June 4, replacing their first music channel timeshift, Flaunt +1, which had only been on air just short of 4 weeks. AnimeCentral has been replaced with Showcase TV on August 27, 2008 which simulcasts of 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 April 8, 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, 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 system in November 2005.^[2]

Like The Box Plus Network, All Around the World Productions, and Global Radio 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 June 4, 2013.

On July 22, 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 April 22, 2014. This timeshift was replaced with Pop +1 on July 14, 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 June 26, 2014, Sony Pictures Television, the company's TV programming and network unit, said it would buy CSC and its 15 channels for £107 million ($180 million).^[3] The deal was completed on 15 August 2014^[4]

List of channels owned by CSC Media Group

General entertainment channels

Music channels

Movie channels

Children's channels

Defunct

Note: Former channels in lime green closed before the start of Sony's deal.

References