Trace Urban (UK and Ireland)


Trace Urban is 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. However, Chart Show Dance continued to have the old look until 13 June 2014.
CSC Media Group announced the launch of Chart Show TV Romania in 2018. The programming is same as the Chart Show TV UK.
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 last song to be played before the rebrand was "Big for Your Boots" by Stormzy but was cut halfway through the song similarly to the sister channels' changes. The channel introduced blocks from former sister channels Starz TV and Trace Latina on 1 June 2020.

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.

Programming

As Chart Show TV, the logo was on screen in the top left-hand corner during music videos. The song information appeared in a moving equalizer type graphic at the start and near the end of each music video. The same graphics are also used for the new Singles, Urban, Dance and Download Charts. The channel's identity was also seen before and after advert breaks when the Chart Show TV logo spinned in the centre of the screen. On 14 May 2013, the onscreen identity in the top left hand side of the screen had the headphones removed.
Upon rename to Trace Urban, the idents are similar to Trace Vault and formerly Trace Latina, but with a shade of orange, reflecting the channel's logo. In early 2020, the Trace-branded channels and Starz TV had their top right corner graphics removed.