CSC bought by Sony

http://tbivision.com/news/2014/06/sony-buys-uk-channels-group/294372/
CSC, owner of Pop, Kix, True Movies, True Entertainment, and Chart Show TV, among others, has been taken over by Sony.

Animax UK is coming? Will all the CSC channels get more push from Sony?

Animax probably not. CSC previously had a channel called Anime Central, and it didn't last long.

Does that mean Kix is going to be renamed Sony Kix?

Doubt it. I can see the True in those channels names being changed to Sony (i.e. True Entertainment becoming Sony Entertainment Television 2, True Movies 1 and 2 becoming Sony Movie Channels 2 and 3), but the kids channels and music channels I think will either be left alone or closed. They don't already have any children's or music channels in other countries.

If that is going to happen, I hope some popular children's channel with free-to-air output (like CITV) will buy UK broadcasting rights for Hasbro Studios shows ( Transformers: Prime , MLP: FIM , etc.). Obviously, CBBC is not into shows associated with franchise from toy companies, but otherwise, shows from big toy companies like Hasbro deserves popular slots on popular channels like CITV, not some unpopular outings like Pop and Pop Girl. The acquisition will likely satisfy fans.

By the way, what will happen in R. Ireland and Malta when those broadcasters buy UK-only rights?

EDIT: OK. My bad. I misread what he said.

Both CBBC and CITV are available in Ireland, though while CBBC is on Sky and cable, CITV is only on free to air satellite. There are very few UK based channels not available in Ireland in some form - ITV Encore would be the most prominent, and aside from the purely local channels I'd struggle to name any other.

I'm aware that some UK channels are available in Malta. But if the new UK-right owner is not available there, will the local broadcaster take Maltese TV rights? If so, which Maltese channel is airing children's programming other than TVM?

By the way, are RTÉ and TG4 interested in children's shows associated with toy maker's franchises?

Well, RTE certainly had no conniptions about it when I was a kid. But they no longer take advertising during childrens programmes so it may be different now, looking at their schedule today TRTE (the preteen segment) is almost entirely composed of Disney and Nickelodeon live action shows, which certainly wasn't the case when I was a viewer (it tended to be a mix of US cartoons, CBBC, and CITV stuff back then).

As for TG4 I see Dora the Explorer there today, which certainly counts as a franchise, though I believe it airs dubbed into Irish (as I presume most kids programmes on it are). I think Dora may have originated as a TV series rather than toy however so not sure if it still counts for your definition.

I'm not particularly familiar with the Maltese TV market but remember that Ireland is - largely because of BSkyB - usually grouped with the UK for cable/satellite rights purposes - which definitely wouldn't be the case with Malta.

I don't understand why they would close the kids and music channels just because they don't have any elsewhere in the world. They're such a large part of the CSC portfolio that they must be making a tidy profit for them all to survive. Chances are Sony bought them up simply for those profits and have no intention of making massive changes.

Popgirl announced what I assume is their first ever original UK commission yesterday so it sounds like it's business as usual there.

Why do people think Sony wont expand the kids portfolio?

I think these True channels could become AXN-branded channels(AXN, AXN Black, AXN White). But for music and children channel I do agree these thing.