Bliss (TV channel)
| Bliss | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Launched | March 2006 |
| Closed | 27 November 2015 |
| Owned by | Sony Pictures Television |
| Picture format | PAL (576i, 16:9/Pillarbox) |
| Audience share | 0.01% (September 2015, BARB) |
| Replaced | The Amp |
| Sister channel(s) |
Chart Show Dance Chart Show TV Flava Kix More Than Movies Movies4Men Pop Scuzz Sony Entertainment Television Sony Movie Channel Starz TV Tiny Pop True Drama True Entertainment True Movies 1 True Movies 2 The Vault |
Availability (at time of closure) | |
| Satellite | |
| Sky | Channel 376 |
| Eutelsat 28A | 11307 V 27500 2/3 |
| Cable | |
| WightFibre | Channel 99 |
Bliss was a British music television channel owned and operated by CSC Media Group (formerly Chart Show Channels).
History
It launched in March 2006 and was advertised as Total Chill-out Classics. The channel played classic pop songs and music from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, along with hours dedicated to love songs and power ballads. Everyday for three hours at 9am and 7pm, there was a weekly themed slot, such as Blissful Divas, music from female artists, or Bliss at The Movies, music from films. These themed slots changed every Monday.
Throughout the year the channel had days dedicated to boy bands, love songs and other types of music depending on dates such as Valentines Day. The channel also shows some newer music videos which fit in with its chill-out theme.
For the channel's original on-screen look, the Bliss logo was a gold colour with a shine 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 coloured bar at the start and near the end of each music video. The channel's identity was also seen before and after advert breaks when the Bliss logo slowly came out of an opening flower.
During 2008, Bliss received a new look, with its logo changing to plain white lettering with 'BLISS' in capitals. The song information now appears in a cloud type graphic which forms in the middle of the screen. As of May 2010, the song information appeared at the bottom of the screen. The logo is also seen before and after advert breaks when a growing flower or flying butterfly goes across the screen, revealing the Bliss logo behind it.
The channel replaced another music channel called The Amp because it failed to reach a wide enough audience.
Bliss was available 24 hours a day on Sky channel 376 and was part of a bouquet of music channels owned by CSC Media.
On 12 May 2008, a +1 timeshift 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, a channel also owned by CSC Media Group. This allowed Pop Girl, which used to time-share with AnimeCentral, to extend its hours to 24 hours a day.
On 3 March 2008, the Bliss website was launched. The website included TV listings, music videos, news, competitions and an online community area. Several programmes on Bliss made use of the website, for example welovebliss.com was a programme which played the most requested songs, as voted for on the Bliss website. Throughout November and December, Bliss became "Blissmas" and was a Christmas music channel and it played mostly Christmas music 24/7. On 31 December 2014 Blissmas rebranded back to Bliss at 6am or Midnight
On 1 February 2011, Bliss launched on the free-to-air satellite platform Freesat on channel 517. It moved to channel 506 on 13 September 2012. It was removed along with Flava on 21 July 2014.
Bliss was axed on 27 November 2015 after nine years.
Bliss removals
On 6 November 2007, Bliss along with sister music channels Scuzz and Flaunt, were removed from Virgin Media's ex-NTL platform as a deal with Chart Show Channels could not be made to make the channels available on the ex-Telewest platform as well. For this reason, 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 80's - Top 20 artists and groups from the 1980s.
- Bliss Country - New and classic country music.
- Blissful 80's - Classic songs from the 1980s.
- Blissful 90's - Feel good music videos from the 1990s.
- Bliss Loves... - A mix of feel good classic tracks and new songs.
- Bliss Loves the 80's - Hits from the 1980s.
- Bliss Loves the 90's - 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 80's and 90's.
- 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 best classic music from Australian artists and groups.
Christmas Programming (Blissmas)
- Christmas on Bliss usually starts in the first fortnight of November between the 10th and 20 November with the exceptions of two years when it started on the 6th then the 1st of November. Bliss always changes the programming completely, including changing their title from Bliss to Blissmas.
- Christmas Bliss
- Merry Blissmas
- The Greatest Xmas Of All
- Christmas No. 1's
- 70's Xmas Party
- 80's Xmas Party
- 90's Xmas Party
- 00's 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 70's Xmas Hits
- Greatest 80's Xmas Hits
- Greatest 90's Xmas Hits