Bliss was a British

music television Music television is a type of television programming which focuses predominantly on playing music videos from recording artists, usually on dedicated television channels broadcasting on satellite, cable, or Streaming Platforms. Music television ...

channel owned and operated by the CSC Media Group (formerly

Chart Show Channels 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. Background CSC Media Group was named ...

History

Early History

Bliss was launched in March 2006, replacing

The Amp The AMP was a youth center and music venue in Minot, North Dakota, United States. Established in October 2003 by Billy Luetzen, the AMP provided a place for local youth to hang out, and on most weekends staged a concert. Generally concerts had ...

. The channel was owned by

British Sky Broadcasting Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...

and their sister channels

Flaunt ''Flaunt'' is an American fashion and culture magazine based in Hollywood, Los Angeles, with an office in New York. History The magazine was founded in 1998 by the current C.E.O. Luis Barajas, and Creative Director Jim Turner, who had previousl ...

and

Scuzz 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 i ...

were operated by

. The channel was advertised with the tagline of "Total Chill-out Classics". The channel played classic

pop song Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

s and music from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, along with hours dedicated to

love song A love song is a song about romantic love, falling in love, heartbreak after a breakup, and the feelings that these experiences bring. A comprehensive list of even the best known performers and composers of love songs would be a large order ...

s and

power ballad A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner.J. ...

s. Every day from 9 am to 12 pm and 7 pm to 10 pm, there was a weekly themed slot, such as Blissful Divas, female artists, or Bliss at The Movies. These themed slots changed every Monday. Throughout the years, the channel had days dedicated to

boy bands A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform love songs marketed towards girls and young women. Man ...

, love songs, and other types of music based on Holidays, such as

Valentines Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, thro ...

. The channel also showed some newer music videos which fit with its chill theme. For the channel's original on-screen look, the Bliss logo was a gold color with a shine effect moving across it every few seconds. The logo was placed in the bottom left-hand corner during music videos, and the song information was shown in a gold-colored bar at the start and near the end of each music video. The channel's identity was also seen before and after advertisement breaks, when the Bliss logo would slowly come out of an opening flower. Sky announced in November 2006 that their music channels would go Free-To-Air, beginning on 11 December 2006, and soon afterwards Sky transitioned full ownership to Chart Show Channels in December 2006. Previously, Bliss and its sister channels were encrypted in NDS from its launch, and broadcasting on the

Eutelsat 28A Eutelsat 133 West A (formerly Eurobird 1, Eutelsat 28A, and Eutelsat 33C) is a Eutelsat operated Eurobird satellite, used primarily for digital television. It was launched in March 2001, and after a short period testing at 33°E, joined Eutels ...

communications satellite, which meant that the channels could be viewed for the first time all across parts of Europe. On 6 November 2007, Bliss and its sister channels were removed from the ex-NTL

Virgin Media Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 joint ventu ...

areas, following a failure of an agreement from Chart Show Channels for the networks to be made available in ex-Tele west areas, coupled by Virgin Media focusing more on their free On-Demand services. On 3 March 2008 the Bliss website launched, which included TV listings, music videos, news, competitions, and an online community area. Several programs were created for the Bliss website, including welovebliss.com, which was a program that played the most requested songs, as voted for on the Bliss website. On 12 May 2008 a +1-time shift channel called Bliss +1 was launched. It was available 24 hours a day on Sky Channel 363. On 2 June 2008 Bliss +1 was closed to make way for a 24-hour stream for

AnimeCentral 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 (initially named "Toon ...

, a channel also owned by CSC Media Group. This allowed

Pop Girl Pop Girl was a free-to-air children's television channel in the United Kingdom, owned by CSC Media Group (formerly Chart Show Channels), a company associated with the makers of ''The Chart Show'', a television programme that had previously bee ...

, which used to time-share with AnimeCentral, to extend its hours to 24 hours a day.

Relaunch and Closure

In late 2008, Bliss received a new look, with its logo changing to plain white lettering with 'BLISS' in capitals. On 1 February 2011 Bliss launched on the Free-To-Air satellite platform

Freesat Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Digital UK. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008. Free ...

on Channel 517. It moved to Channel 506 on 13 September 2012. It was removed along with Flava on 21 July 2014. Throughout November and December of 2013, Bliss became "Blissmas", a Christmas music channel playing Christmas music 24/7. Bliss was shut down on 27 November 2015, after nine years, while in the middle of its annual run as Blissmas. In 2018, Christmas music moved to its sister music channel,

Chart Show Hits 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 in France History On 17 March 2010, Dance Nation TV replaced ...

(called Chart Show Dance at time of closure).

Bliss removals

On 6 November 2007 Bliss, along with its sister music channels

and

, were removed from

's ex-NTL platform as a deal with

could not be made to make the channels available on the ex-Tele west platform. Hence, the channels were dropped.

Programming

Normal programming

*21st Century Bliss - The newest blissful songs. *Best of Bliss - A selection of songs from all over the world. *Best Top 20 Acts of The 80s - Top 20 artists and groups from the 1980s. *Bliss Country - New and classic country music. *Blissful 80s - Classic songs from the 1980s. *Blissful 90s - Feel good music videos from the 1990s. *Bliss Loves... - A mix of feel good classic tracks and new songs. *Bliss Loves the 80s - Hits from the 1980s. *Bliss Loves the 90s - Music videos from the 1990s. *Bliss On Demand - The most requested music videos from the Bliss website. *Bliss Rocks - The biggest power ballads of all time. *Breakfast Bliss - Selection of hits from the 1980s and 1990s. *Forbidden Love - The best blissful music. *Here Come The Boys! - The best music from classic boybands and solo artists. *Here Come The Girls! - Great music from the best female artists and bands. *Late Night Love - A selection of slow romantic love songs. *Love in the Afternoon - Great love songs from the biggest artists. *Love is all Around - The best love songs of all time. *Morning Bliss - Classic songs from the last 20 years. *My Idea of Bliss - A collection of songs selected by different artists. *Sheer Bliss - Selection of hits from the last two decades. *The Greatest Love of All - Romantic love songs. *The Power of Love - Selection of love songs. *Under the Covers - The smoothest classic tracks. *welovebliss.com - The most requested songs from the Bliss TV website. *Best of British - A collection of classic songs from UK artists. *Bliss at The Movies - Selections from movie soundtracks. *Bliss Heartthrobs - Songs from popular male artists. *Blissful Boybands - Hits by popular boybands. *Blissful Breaks - Well known music that has been used in adverts. *Blissful Divas - Songs by popular female artists. *Blissful Megastars - Classic songs from some of the biggest artists. *Blissful Weepies - A selection of classic songs. *Heroes and Heroines - A selection of music from the greatest artists and bands. *Summer of Love - A selection of love songs for the summer. *Top 100 Blissful Weepies - A countdown of the top 100 saddest songs. *Wizards From Oz! - The bestclassicalc music from Australian artists and groups.

Christmas Programming (Blissmas)

*Christmas on Bliss usually started in the first fortnight of November between 10 and 20 November with the exceptions of two years when it started on the 6th then 1 November. Bliss always changed the programming completely, including changing their title from Bliss to Blissmas. *Christmas Bliss *Merry Blissmas *The Greatest Xmas Of All *Christmas No. 1's *70s Xmas Party *80s Xmas Party *90s Xmas Party *00s Xmas Party *Andy Abraham's Top 50 Christmas crackers *Paloma Faith's top 20 Christmas Party *Christmas Belles *Guess The Year Christmas Special *Jason Donovan's Christmas.... *Greatest 70s Xmas Hits *Greatest 80s Xmas Hits *Greatest 90s Xmas Hits

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bliss (Tv Channel) CSC Media Group Music video networks in the United Kingdom Television channels and stations established in 2006 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2015 Defunct British television channels Sony Pictures Television