Magic is a British music television channel owned by

Channel Four Television Corporation Channel Four Television Corporation is a British state-owned media company headquartered in London. Its original and principal activity is the British national television network Channel 4. The company was founded in 1982 as the Channel Four T ...

. It plays mainly easy listening music videos and is based on the Magic radio station owned by

Bauer Media Audio UK Bauer Media Audio UK is a UK-based radio division of the Bauer Media Group. History In early 2008, German magazine publisher Bauer bought the radio division of British company Emap, which had been established as East Midland Allied Press i ...

. Magic mainly focuses on music from the 1970s to the present day. Like other Box Television music television channels under Bauer's brand, Magic operated a

jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media. The classic jukebox has buttons, with letters and numbers on them, which are used to sele ...

service where viewers were able to request videos to be played via a premium-rate telephone number. Channel 4 has stated it will rebrand Magic TV in 2023, as the rights to use the Magic brand on the channel from Bauer will be ending.

History

The channel was a part of a network of channels owned by The Box Plus Network (formerly Box Television) which included

4Music 4Music is a British music television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. The original incarnation was launched on 15 August 2008, and until 29 June 2022, showed a mix of music and entertainment programming. I ...

, Kerrang! TV, Box Hits, The Box, and

Kiss A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

. All of these channels including Magic TV are now in Channel 4's main business operations. On 2 April 2013, all Box Television channels went

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...

on satellite, apart from

which went

free-to-view Free-to-view (FTV) is a term used for audiovisual transmissions that are provided free without any form of continual subscription . It differs from free-to-air (FTA) in that the program is encrypted. Free-to-view vs. free-to-air The free-to-vi ...

. As a result, the channels were removed from the Sky EPG in Ireland. However, Magic was launched on

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 29 April 2013, alongside

Heat In thermodynamics, heat is defined as the form of energy crossing the boundary of a thermodynamic system by virtue of a temperature difference across the boundary. A thermodynamic system does not ''contain'' heat. Nevertheless, the term is ...

, following the addition of four other Box Television channels on 15 April. Magic TV and its sister channels returned to Freesat on 8 December 2021. From 27 September 2021 to 20 October 2021, Magic broadcast a simulcast of The Box, after the activation of a fire suppressant system at the premises of Red Bee Media on 25 September 2021. Magic TV was restored on 21 October 2021. On 22 August 2022, Magic TV's on-screen Graphics were updated, removing the 'TV' wording from the logo, and making the programme titles bolder and slightly larger.

Programming

* Madonna Week * Summer Feeling * Dancing Queen * Late Night Magic * Brighten Up Your Breakfast * The Magic Singles of the Week – Sarah Powell plays 20 songs selected by Magic HQ. * Rewind the Classics * Feel the Magic * Back to the...'s * Simply... – Videos from a single artist. * Magic 80s Weekend *Magic at the Movies – A block of countdowns and playlists featuring songs from film soundtracks, usually the block is in the form of a 'Magic at the Movies' Bank Holiday weekend, but some shows are part of the regular line-up * Club Classics * Magic Picks of the Week * Louise's Girls Gone Solo * Let's Talk About Duets 90s/00s/Pop Bands * Christmas Countdowns Top 20/50

Compilation albums

The channel has released several compilation albums.

References

External links

* {{Magic Radio Channel 4 television channels Music video networks in the United Kingdom Television channels and stations established in 2001 2001 establishments in the United Kingdom