Trace Hits

Trace Hits (formerly Chart Show TV and Trace Urban) was a British free-to-air music channel owned by Trace Group.

History

Chart Show TV launched on 16 September 2002 and initially consisted of several different charts, mimicking the format of the television show upon which it was based. However, many of these were dropped and the channel started showing music videos.

The channel broadcast in 4:3 from its launch but switched to 16:9 on 4 February 2008. All of CSC Media Group's other music channels have also switched to 16:9 broadcasting. A new website for Chart Show TV is also under development since its sister channels have had new websites launched.

On 5 January 2012, Chart Show TV +1 launched, replacing NME TV. The temporary channel was replaced by BuzMuzik on 30 May 2012.

On 1 May 2014, Chart Show TV got a new look with a .tv screen (with 'chart show' being only seen at the beginning of a music video, not to be confused with the defunct channel .tv, which closed in 2001). However, Chart Show Dance continued to have the old look until 13 June 2014.

In December 2018, Trace Group acquired Chart Show TV from Sony Pictures Television.

On 1 November 2019, Chart Show TV was rebranded as Trace Urban following Trace's takeover of Sony's music channels. The channel introduced blocks from former sister channels Starz TV and Trace Latina on 1 June 2020.

On 1 October 2020, the channel rebranded to Trace Xmas, taking over from defunct sister channel Starz TV. This was repeated in 2021 and in 2022.

On 5 January 2021, the channel has been rebranded to Trace Hits.

The channel closed on 27 April 2023.

Freeview
On 8 May 2014, Chart Show TV was launched on Freeview, on channel 67. It became a placeholder on 3 September 2014 along with the Freeview retune, and was removed from Freeview on all regions, including London, except in Manchester on 8 September.

It was removed from Manchester Freeview in November 2017, and was replaced with sister channel Trace Vault, though both channels could be found on Freeview via Channelbox (Freeview Channel 271) in the streamed section alongside 'GImux' channels Clubland TV, Country Music Entertainment and Now 90s.

On 27 June 2022, a trio of Trace music channels were launched on Channelbox with Trace Urban, Trace Latina and Trace Brazuca replacing Trace Vault and Trace Hits, in a section on channel 271 which now included Zoom, Balle Balle and Stingray's channels (Qello, CMusic and Karaoke) rather than Universal's Now Music channels.

Former Programming 
 Chart Show Chat - Music and interviews with artists and groups, presented by Stefanie Faleo.
 Chart Show's Top 20/40 Singles Chart - A weekly countdown of the top 20/40 singles with James Barr.
 Global Hits! - The world's biggest hits throughout the early breakfast hours.
 New Music Now! - The latest songs added to the Chart Show TV playlist.
 Pop Quiz, Let's Test ya! - A selection of pop music-related questions whilst showing the latest pop music videos.
 Request - An interactive show where a set of 4 songs at a time can be chosen by tweeting the relevant hashtag, the hashtag with the most votes is then played next and this process is repeated. Show was previously on Bliss and then Chart Show Dance.
 Top 20 Urban Chart Rollers - 20 biggest urban tracks of the week.
 Top 20 US Single Chart - Songs that are in position 20 to 1 on the week's US Single Chart.

References

External links
 

CSC Media Group
Defunct television channels in the United Kingdom
Music video networks in the United Kingdom
Television channels and stations established in 2002
2002 establishments in the United Kingdom
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2023
2023 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
Black British music