CSN (TV Channel)

Final logo used in 2023.

#### TV that keeps you watching.

**CSN** (previously stood for *Cypher Sonic Network*) was a British Pirate television channel owned by CSN Networks and aimed at the 16-34 age demographic. The channel initially "launched" on 19th March 2022 at 7PM with the first programme being Sonic Boom. The channel primarily airs Comedy, Drama and Action shows, with a lot of inspiration taken from channels such as SYFY (and Sky Sci-Fi), Cartoon Network's CNX, FX and Adult Swim, while also taking some inspiration from film channels such as TCM, AAA Movies and Film4 with it's CSMovies strand. CSN operates on a weekly basis, mainly broadcasting on weekends (Saturday and Sunday) from 6PM-4AM. The channel's focus in programming went from mainly animated shows in the first 2 months to a more varied mix of programming starting in May 2022. Cypher.Sonic announced that CSN would cease broadcasting on 31 December 2023, the channel closed for the last time at 3AM on 1 January 2024.

The channel operated 1 programming block, CSMovies (Mondays from 7PM). Previously aired programming blocks on the channel include; Adult Swim, STAR and JETIX. However these haven't aired since the July 2022 rebrand (October 2022 in JETIX's case). CSNightscreen was the late night filler on CSN, it showcased upcoming and continuing programming on CSN and the latest top stories in the news (via Sky News and BBC News).

## History

CSN's planning stages started in December 2021. CSN's roots stem back to the Cypher.Sonic/TheGamingRaccoon 'Adult Swim esque' programming block videos from 2017 and 2021 respectively. CSN first came about when an idea was had to both revive FX UK and CNX and turn the Cypher.Sonic block into a real thing, so both ideas were combined into what we now know as CSN. Ideas for the network were thrown around until it was chosen to air Animation, Action, Comedy and later, Drama.

CSN was officially launched on 19th March 2022 at 7PM with the first ever program being Sonic Boom, and using the Blues branding package. CSN went on by for a month until the channel was said to be coming to Twitch, accompanied by new branding 'Blues V2', JETIX programming, advert breaks replaced with CSN Shorts, and a new Sonic the Hedgehog 2 sponsor. Immediately after the Twitch announcement, it was announced CSN Networks had struck a deal with FeckArse to put CSN on it's service on Channel 125, replacing CRMovies+1 and CSN would air promos for FeckArse's channel lineup like FX (then MTV One) and Bravo. CSN launched on Twitch on 16th April 2022 and at the time went on for every 2 weeks on Saturdays at 7:30PM to 3AM. CSN premiered Space Jam 2 on 16th April, followed by the Sonic OVA on May 7th. The April 30th broadcast of CSN was delayed to 7th May due to personal reasons. CSN began airing new series in its 8PM timeslot on 7th May starting BNA: Brand New Animal and later Sakura Wars the Animation in July.

On 28th May 2022, CSN's airtime was extended by 30 minutes to stealth premiere a series from the BBC, Inside No. 9. Not long after this, CSN's hours were extended to 4am permanently and started streaming weekly, this was accompanied by some more new branding items from the 'Blues V2' branding package and a brand new version of CSNightscreen on 25th June 2022. On 2nd July 2022, CSN finished its run of BNA: Brand New Animal, soon to be replaced by Sakura Wars the Animation on 9th July 2022. Also on 2nd July 2022, CSN promoted fellow pirate channel, RTV, for its SU2C weekend. On 9th July 2022, CSN welcomed both Sakura Wars the Animation and The IT Crowd to its lineup, the latter of which also aired on another pirate channel, CSTV. On 17th July 2022, RTV would host the 2022 RTV Awards Show, in which CSN was nominated in 5 categories; Best Entertainment Show (Inside No. 9), Best Animated Show (Sakura Wars the Animation), Fan-Favourite Channel, Best Channel and the Symbol of Risky. CSN won the privately chosen Symbol of Risky and Best Channel awards.

On 10th July 2022, CSN announced it would be rebranding to the Blues V3 branding package on 30th July 2022. The rebrand will be the first big rebrand since its launch in March and will bring alot of new branding items to the network such as Idents, Bumpers, Promo graphics, Social Media graphics, Lower Thirds and more. The Blues V3 rebrand was accompanied by an advertising campaign '#KeepingYouWatching' which is derived from the new slogan 'TV that keeps you watching'. Alongside this rebrand, new shows such as Man Vs. Bee, Killing It and Sonic Prime were said to be coming to the network, as part of its '#KeepingYouWatching' campaign. Alongside this the new season of Solar Opposites was said to start on August 6th alongside new series, Man Vs. Bee. To advertise this a Solar Opposites marathon will happen on Wednesday, August 3rd, marking the 2nd time CSN streamed on another day that wasn't a Saturday, this is said to become a regular occurance, with Saturdays now being the day when new shows, episodes & movies air. With the new rebrand, CSN decided to axe the 'Adult Swim', 'JETIX' and 'STAR' brand names from the channel, however the shows from these were said to be staying. In August 2022, CSN introduced CSMovies, a new strand to be run on CSN, focusing on motion pictures, main genres being Action, Animation, Horror and Comedy movies. CSMovies on CSN began on 13th August with the network premiere of 2021 feature film, Free Guy. Alongside this a brand new Jetix block was announced to be coming to CSN on 13th August, the block would feature action-oriented kids shows such as Steven Universe, Sonic X, Adventure Time, Yin Yang Yo! and OK K.O. Let's Be Heroes. To accomodate Jetix, CSN's broadcast hours were extended, with it now signing on at 6PM.

On the 24th August 2022, CSN announced it's first sister channel, a spinoff of the CSMovies strand. The channel would mainly focus on repeats of past CSMovies films, and more obscure films the main channel wouldn't show at the time, CSMovies would launch on the 17th September 2022 at 9pm, the first film being Who Framed Roger Rabbit, simulcasted on both CSN and CSMovies itself. CSMovies would continue as a strand on CSN, alongside the channel. On the 26th August 2022, as a part of CSTV's programming shakeup with the channel becoming more movie and poker oriented, it gave its exclusive rights of Family Guy to CSN (in which CSN was already airing in syndication from CSTV). Not long after this, it was announced that Season 21 of Family Guy would premiere exclusively on CSN, starting from the 1st October 2022 until the 13th May 2023, the series would premiere new episodes at 11PM every Saturday on CSN.

On 8th September 2022, you might remember that date for the wrong reasons. CSN got ahold of the mycsn.co.uk domain, and to go with it, a brand new website launched, incorporating graphics from the then recent Blues V3 Rebrand. Alongside the new website, CSN would launch the CSNArchive, a streaming service run by Plex where viewers could watch any previous CSN broadcasts, later adding CSMovies and CSN2 broadcasts aswell. In October, 3 new shows came to CSN, Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-Head (previously aired on the now defunct CSTV), The Eric Andre Show and Bee and Puppycat: Lazy in Space. On 24th October, CSN would stealth debut CSNTunes during a graveyard slot, it is inspired by Kerrang and showcases music videos of Rock, Alt and Metal, the first song being 'Dance, Dance' by Fall Out Boy. A complimentary 2nd channel, CSN2, would launch on 1st November, replacing the CSMovies channel, it would air older shows from the CSN archive and repeats of recently finished shows such as Killing It and Man Vs Bee, while also airing anime in it's Toonami block, premiering shows such as Shenmue the Animation and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. CSMovies would revert back to being a block on CSN after the channel was replaced. On November 7th, CSN would premiere all new series from SYFY, Resident Alien & Chucky and from GOLD, Murder, They Hope. Later on in November, CSN announced a long hiatus, with the final stream before being on the 19th December 2022, to premiere the new series, Sonic Prime and show the series 1 finales of Resident Alien and Chucky. The last programme shown on CSN before it temporarily shutdown was the 1996 Sonic the Hedgehog movie. It is not said exactly why CSN went on hiatus but it was because, CSN was not faring well in ratings at the time. CSN2 also quietly shutdown on the same day.

CSN returned to screens on January 7th 2023 at 8PM, with a repeat of CSMovies favourite, The Bad Guys, continuation of new series Sonic Prime and Season 21 of Family Guy and repeats of multiple CSN favourite series such as Inside No. 9 and Bee and Puppycat throughout the night. On January 15th 2023, CSN premiered the new series from Michael Cusack, Koala Man, exclusively and aired the Looney Tunes classic movie, Space Jam, becoming CSN's highest rated programme at 45+ viewers. On January 21st 2023, CSN premiered the brand new movie from DreamWorks Animation, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.

On Feburary 16th 2023, CSN announced that it would soon rebrand to use the Blues V4 branding package on the 18th March 2023 for the 1st anniversary since CSN first launched. Alongside this rebrand came the first logo change in CSN's history, with the new logo being the iconic C, S and N inside a white rectangle. The rebrand would make use of CSN's lettering and use the letters as assets, occaisonally with characters coming out of the letters, as seen in the social media posts, endboard and menu. CSN's new colour scheme would use dark blues, akin to the Blues V1 branding of March 2022. The rebrand would be joined by new shows such as Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Shield, Marvel's Hit-Monkey, Mr. Robot, Luther & Primal. The rebrand would shake up CSN's programming lineup alot, introducing more Dramas and being more akin to the channels original remit of being a spiritual successor to Cartoon Network's CNX and FX UK. F.E.A.R. by Ian Brown would become the channels main theme, with songs such as Danger! High Voltage (Electric Six), Bat Country (Avenged Sevenfold) and later Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt (DJ Shadow) being used too. On March 25th 2023, CSN would host the UK TV Premiere of Cocaine Bear, and would premiere Hit-Monkey and Better Call Saul. On April 1st 2023, CSN would become CNX for a few hours to celebrate the day, being April Fools day, and would air CSN's shows that used to air on CNX such as The Shield and Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and premiered martial arts movie, Yakuza: Like A Dragon, during the one-off CNX block. On April 29th 2023, CSN announced it would soon air the upcoming series, Scott Pilgrim: The Anime, produced by Universal Content Productions, who also produced CSN series such as Chucky, Killing It, Mr Robot and Resident Alien, after airing the 2010 movie, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.

On 6th May 2023, CSN began airing not only on Saturdays, but also Sundays, now airing for the entire weekend, providing viewers with a whole new day of entertainment, alongside this change, CSN began airing Unicorn: Warriors Eternal, every Sunday from 8PM, Season 5 of Breaking Bad at midnight on both days, and would finally start airing Chucky Season 2 at 1AM every weekend. On 13th May 2023, Family Guy Season 21 would finally come to a close, finishing what was premiering exclusively on CSN since October 2022. Throughout June, CSN would celebrate Pride Month! This included new graphics, featuring a rainbow coloured gradient! To celebrate, CSN would air a marathon of Steven Universe on June 11th, the show hadn't been seen on CSN since the axing of the Jetix block in October 2022. CSN would also start airing repeats from Chucky Season 1 throughout June and premiered movies such as 1996's Bound. Also in June, taking Inside No. 9's previous slot, Reginald the Vampire from SYFY would come to CSN, airing Saturdays at 10PM, until it is replaced on 29th July by brand new series based on the PlayStation classic, Twisted Metal. On 25th June 2023, Breaking Bad finally concluded on CSN, this would start another change to the schedule with Better Call Saul and Resident Alien taking up the previous slots held by Breaking Bad and Chucky the following week.

On 2nd July 2023, CSN's broadcast hours of 6PM-3AM were extended to 4AM, broadcasting for a total of 10 hours, this would accomodate new shows and go back to the previous hours from July-November 2022. Throughout July, CSN would air a lot of new programming such as; Season 6 of Better Call Saul, the complete series of Resident Alien, Season 2 of Sonic Prime and the series premieres of My Adventures With Superman and Twisted Metal. On 13th July, the CSN Wiki was launched, being in-development since July 2022. CSN would also announce their August lineup in July which will include Season 2 of Killing It on 20th August, Season 4 of Solar Opposites on 19th August and The Bear on 13th August. Starting on 22nd July, CSN started using an automation system for it's post-1AM programming lineup, this allows the channel to run without ruining my sleep schedule. Also in August, CSN started bringing back certain shows that it used to air including South Park and Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal. On 5th August 2023, CSN would simulcast with other pirate channels, RTV and Plus, to air a 2009 documentary based on Family Guy by the BBC, Family Guy: The Story So Far, which aired in CSN's usual Family Guy slot of 11PM, this would mark the first time something like this would happen in Pirate Television.

On 9th August 2023, CSN announced CSN2 would be making a comeback with a marathon of the Chucky franchise, however instead of being a full on channel, 2 would be a complimentary feed to the main CSN, freeing up CSN for more content. In August, CSN would start to stealth premiere some shows to add onto the early/late night schedules, these so far include; The Boys, House MD and Bones. On 2nd September 2023, CSN announced it was going on a short break and would return on 7th October, with new shows and episodes such as Season 3 of Chucky and Season 22 of Family Guy. CSN returned on the 7th October 2023, with it bringing new shows to the schedule, most notably new anime such as Noragami, being the new ongoing 9PM show, and Serial Experiments Lain, alongside returning shows, Chucky, Killing It and Family Guy. This date is also notable as it is now when CSN will rebrand to the Blues V5 branding package, with new promos, bumpers and graphics. On 28th October, CSN announced it would be shutting down the CSNArchive service, which ran on Plex, which had launched 7 months prior on the 19th March, it was because of a lack of hard drive space and use, this would also include the mycsn.co.uk website. On 31st October 2023, CSN would repeat it's, now-annual, halloween CSMovies stream, this time on the main CSN channel, it included the CSN Network premiere of Five Nights At Freddy's and M3GAN, and included other films such as Bride of Chucky (which aired the previous Halloween on the CSMovies Channel), Seed of Chucky, Scream and Halloween. During the Halloween 2023 stream, the CSN channel got knocked off air due to being banned by Twitch during Five Nights At Freddy's, causing the channel to have to broadcast on Vaughn for the night. On 3rd November 2023, CSN announced it would be returning to broadcast on Monday nights temporarily throughout December, starting on the 27th November, this is because CSN was not able to run during December in its designated weekend timeslot.

On 1st December 2023, CSN announced it would be winding down operations of its TV channels and social media pages on the 31st, effectively shutting both it and CSN2 down after nearly 2 years on air. Cypher.Sonic, the owner of CSN, stated that the channel was closing due to a lack of interest from viewers and the Pirate TV community being dead, with CSN being the only channel really still broadcasting normally. CSN would shutdown 4 days after CSN2 on the 1st January 2024 at 3AM, with the last programme being the same episode of Sonic Boom that the channel launched with, Sole Power. The final broadcast was full of old and popular CSN programmes such as Breaking Bad, Solar Opposites, Killing It and Chucky. The channel would sign off with a message from Cypher.Sonic, a sendoff Music Video set to an acoustic version of Ian Brown's F.E.A.R., which was the main theme for the channel from March to October 2023 and a message telling viewers thank you for watching and that the channel had ceased broadcasting.

## Programming

> Main article: List of programmes broadcast by CSN
>
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In its early months, CSN's programming was predominantly made up of reruns of Animated shows like *Family Guy* and a lot of shows broadcast by Adult Swim and Cartoon Network. In its early days, CSN had a large collection of animated programming, including the Seth MacFarlane shows, *Sonic X*, *Regular Show* and *Solar Opposites*, before introducing more live-action oriented programming starting in May 2022 with *Jackass, Fonejacker* and *Inside No. 9*. CSN's current programming includes such shows as *Better Call Saul*, *Chucky, Resident Alien, Breaking Bad* and *Luther.*

CSN primarily focused on Comedy, Drama and Action shows, sticking to the channels remit of being a spiritual successor to CNX and FX UK, however it aired a small selection of programmes in other genres, namely Non-Fiction with the documentary, *The Merrie History of Looney Tunes*, and the *Cypher's Discussions* series, but these shows have not aired since October 2022. CSN has a segment called *CSN Shorts* that occasionally aired in-between progrmming, this consists of short films and animations, primarily related to its shows, these include the *Los Pollos Hermanos* Training videos or the theatrical shorts from *Looney Tunes*, it also included some Adult Swim programming, such as *Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell*.

## Branding

CSN went through 5 branding packages throughout its 2 years on air. Blues V1 launched with the channel with a Navy Blue theme and landscape idents but these were only temporary to make way for Blues V2 on April 8th. Blues V2's main theme was images behind a blue tint. Blues V2 puts more emphasis on the shows compared to V1, shown in the idents and bumpers. Blues V1's signature font was the Heavy variant of TT Norms Pro. Blues V2's signature font was Interstate Bold, being used everywhere from the Promos to the Menus, this was a callback to CSN's remit, how the channel is a spiritual successor to CNX, as Interstate was also the signature font of CNX. ITV Reem would also be used with the Blues V2 branding, however would only make small appearances apart from the channels tagline.

The channel rebranded to use the Blues V3 package on 30th July. The branding consisted of deep blues with a gradient commonly used throughout the branding, the branding would have seasonal variants such as on Halloween 2022 when the colour scheme was switched up to Orange. The signature font used from here would go back to Blues V1 in using TT Norms Pro, an idea given from MocksTV, who also helped pick out the colour scheme for this branding package, mainly using the regular and bold variants this time, this font would also be used on the Blues V4 branding package too. This branding would be featured on the creators of TT Norms, TypeType's website, being alongside branding from channels such as Cartoon Network (Redraw Your World) and CBS News, and companies such as Doordash.

On 18th March 2023, CSN would rebrand once again, using branding from the Blues V4 package, this time building on all 3 packages with the colour scheme from V1/V2 and the fonts and gradients from V3, taking cues from the previous CSN sister channels, CSMovies and CSN2, and being based on the CNX revival mock by Cypher.Sonic from Feburary 2022. A new logo would be introduced for this rebrand, featuring the iconic CSN logo but in a boxed rectangle, akin to DMAX and Dave. This branding would also introduce a new technique in which key characters from a Show or Movie would come out of the CSN letters, this would be used everywhere from the Menu to the Social Media channels. This branding would also use the C, S and N as assets in which they would be edited to make up the CSN logo or do something on-screen. The branding is constantly evolving with new idents, menus and bumpers coming to CSN constantly since the brandings introduction in March.

CSN rebranded to the Blues V5 branding package for its return from hiatus on 7th October 2023, unlike other rebrands, this will be used alongside certain aspects from V4, such as the Ident set, which is continuously expanding. Blues V5 is made up of an abstract X shape, and moving gradient and brand new font, now using TT Travels Next from TypeType. This would be the last set to be used on CSN, on the final night, CSN brought back all 5 packages to be used as bumpers and in classic promos.

Endboard used throughout the Blues V1 and V2 branding packagesEndboard used throughout the Blues V2 branding packageEndboard used throughout the Blues V3 branding packageEndboard used throughout the Blues V3 branding packageMenu used throughout the Blues V3 branding packageEndboard used throughout the Blues V4 branding packageEndboard used throughout the Blues V4 branding packageMenu used throughout the Blues V4 branding packageMenu used throughout the Blues V4 branding packageEndboard used throughout the Blues V5 branding packageMenu used throughout the Blues V5 branding package
#### Digital On-Screen Graphic

CSN's DOG has had a few adjustments throughout CSN's history. At first the DOG was in the top left, just near the edge of the safezone, it would appear only in programmes until May 7th 2022, when it was changed to permanently be on screen. On 18th March 2023, to go alongside the new logo, a new DOG was introduced, in the same position as the previous one, it would simply just be that with the new logo, this wouldn't last long however, as the DOG was changed yet again on the 25th March 2023, moving the position of the DOG to the top right, moving it so it fits more in line with the safezone and making it slightly bigger, this DOG would see another adjustment on the 17th June 2023, when a new animation for the DOG was made that would play as a programme begins, it would feature the CSN letters falling to form the boxed CSN logo. On 19th August 2023, the DOG would be moved slightly to the left, to fit more in line with the safezone, before this, the DOG was only a few pixels from the border. On 31st October 2023, during the CSMovies Haunted Cinema broadcast, CSN introduced a new DOG for its CSMovies block, it would not feature the main DOG as that would only be visible for the first minute of the film and during credits.

Used from 19 March 2022 - 18 March 2023 (Pictured on 13 August 2022)18 March 2023 - 25 March 2023 (Pictured on 18 March 2023)25 March 2023 – 1 January 2024 (Pictured on 19 June 2023)31 October 2023 – 1 January 2024 (Pictured on 31 October 2023)
#### End Credit Promotions

Starting on 11th June 2022, CSN started using ECPs during it's programmes to promote upcoming or current programming on the channel, listed below are all the ECP's that have/are used by CSN.

11 June 2022 - 30 July 202230 July 2022 - 13 August 202213 August 2022 - 18 March 202310 September 202224 October 2022 - 18 March 202331 October 2022 - 18 March 202318 March 2023 – 7 October 202329 July 2023 – 7 October 20237 October 2023 - 1 January 20247 October 2023 - 1 January 2024
## Continuity Announcers

The channels hosts were Cyph, from Cypher.Sonic, and Feff Jowler, a parody of Sonic Movie director Jeff Fowler, from April to May of 2022. Cyph is from Cypher's Discussions and was made the host of CSN to cross promote the series and the Cypher.Sonic YouTube Channel. Feff Jowler was said to be a super fan of CSN who keeps hacking into CSN HQ and Cyph constantly tells him to go away in continuity announcements.

When the channel first launched, continuity announcements were done by a text to speech program, this was only temporary however. From April to August 2022, announcements were done exclusively by Cypher.Sonic. From August 2022 to June 2023, CSN's voiceovers have been from Bluefrog, Elevenlabs (mimicking the CNX and FX voiceovers) and sometimes Cypher, with guest voiceovers from people like QLMB and Tyler LastName. From July 2023 until its closure, CSN went back to April 2022 in having voiceovers be done exclusively by Cypher.Sonic, however improved alot since then.

## Logos

Pre-Launch Concept Logo18 March 2022 - 18 March 202318 March 2023 – 1 January 2024
## See Also

* Cypher.Sonic
* CSN Networks
* CSNightscreen
* CSN2
* CSMovies

#### External Links

* CSN YouTube Channel
* CSN Twitch Channel
* CSN on Twitter
* Cypher.Sonic YouTube Channel