CSC Media Group (formerly known as Chart Show Channels) are a UK-based satellite television channel provider, named after the defunct The Chart Show. CSC evolved from the original Chart Show production company Video Visuals. They own 16 channels all of which are advertising funded and FTA. (Bliss, Scuzz and Flaunt were previously encrypted in NDS while they were owned by BSkyB)
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, and this meant that they were no longer part of the Sky TV Music Mix.
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 August 27, 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.
CSC Media Group have no on-screen presenters and only a rarely heard continuity announcer who works on all of the channels, usually introducing prize draws and announcing what programmes are showing later. The channels are funded by advertising and SMS revenues for competitions.
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, and were said to be 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.
Like the Viacom International Media Networks Europe and Box Television channels, all of CSC's music channels now air teleshopping after hours.
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