CSC Media Group

CSC Media Group
Subsidiary
Industry Multi Channel TV
Predecessor Chart Show Channels
Founded January 2006
Headquarters London, United Kingdom
Area served
 United Kingdom and Ireland
Key people
 Remy Minute
Owner Sony Pictures Television
Number of employees
 (51)
Website www.cscmediagroup.com

CSC Media Group (formerly known as Chart Show Channels) are a UK-based satellite television channel provider.

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 BSkyB).

History

Until May 2005, their sole 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, 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 showed music videos along with cartoons.

In 2006 CSC Media Group took over Bliss, Scuzz and Flaunt from BSkyB and now fully own them. 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 and this is 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 RnB 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 6 May they launched Flaunt +1, a 1-hour timeshifted version of Flaunt. This was their first ever timeshifted music channel and also is 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, 6 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 19 May, they launched their fourth kids channel, replacing Pop +1. Kix! kicked off at 6.00am, showing a mixture of cartoons, extreme sports as well as music, aimed for boys, similar to another kids channel, Jetix. It currently broadcasts from 6.00am to 11.30pm daily. Pop Girl +1, a 1-hour timeshifted version of Pop Girl launched on Wednesday 4 June, which replaced 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 27 August 2008 which simlucasts of mixture of channels such as Pop Girl, Chart Show TV, True Movies 2 alongside with AnimeCentral programming block with repeats of Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

They are also the majority owner of Moving Movies Ltd., with True Movies 1 being the first channel from the company, which launched on 8 April 2005 and was joined by True Movies 2 in March 2006. Both channels show mainly made-for-TV movies from a range of film 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 were 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 Television, 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 and 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, 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

Channel name Launch date
True Drama 2013/06/04
True Entertainment 2009/08/02
True Entertainment +1 2014/04/03
The Vault 2003

Music channels

Channel name Launch date
Bliss 2006/03
Chart Show Dance 2010/03/17
Chart Show TV 2002/09/16
Flava 2004/06
Scuzz 2003/04/17
Starz TV 2005

Movie channels

Channel name Launch date
True Christmas 2005/04/29
True Movies 2 2006/03/20

Children's channels

Channel name Launch date
Kix 2008/05/19
Pop 2003/05/29
Pop +1 2014/07/14
Pop Girl 2007/08/06
Tiny Pop 2004/07/27
Tiny Pop +1 2007

Defunct

Channel name Launch date Close date Notes
The Amp 2003/04/17 2006/03/02 Replaced by Bliss
AnimeCentral 2007/09/13 2008/08/27 Replaced by Showcase TV
Bliss +1 2008/05/12 2008/06/02 Allowed AnimeCentral to go 24 hours
BuzMuzik 2012/05/30 2014/04/03 Replaced with True Entertainment +1. The channel also closed due to the CSC Media Group buying Starz TV which shows similar content to BuzMuzik
Chart Shop TV 2002/10/06 2003/03 Replaced by The Vault
Chart Show TV +1 2012/01/05 2012/05/30 Replaced by BuzMuzik
Flaunt 2003/04/17 2010/03/17 Replaced by Dance Nation TV
Flaunt +1 2008/05/06 2008/06/04 Replaced by Pop Girl +1
Kix + 2013/07/22 2014/07/14 Replaced by Pop +1
MinX 2007/10/08 2007/11/22 Replaced by NME TV
NME TV 2007/11/22 2012/01/05 Replaced by Chart Show TV +1
Pop +1 2008/05/18 Replaced by Kix (returned on 2014/07/14)
Pop Girl +1 2008/06/04 2013/07/22 Replaced by Kix Power
Pop Plus 2003/09/08 2004/07/27 Replaced by Tiny Pop
Scuzz +1 2008/11/17 2008/11/21 EPG slot sold to NHK World
Showcase TV 2008/08/27 2009/08/03 Replaced by True Entertainment
True Entertainment +1 2013/02/25 2013/06/04 Replaced by True Drama (returned on 2014/04/03)

References

  1. ↑ Eggerton, John (2014-06-26). "Sony Buys CSC Media Group". Multichannel. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  2. ↑ Wilkes, Neil (2005-11-10). "Freeview bidding "reaches £10 million" - Tech News". Digital Spy. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  3. ↑ Knight, Sophie (2014-06-26). "Sony to buy Britain's CSC media group in TV network push | Reuters". Uk.reuters.com. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  4. ↑ Clarke, Stewart (2014-08-15). "Sony closes CSC deal, ups Kate Marsh / TBI Vision TBI Vision". Tbivision.com. Retrieved 2015-02-22.

External links