Six TV - Launch and Expansion

Launch and Expansion

Oxford Broadcasting was founded in 1998 by Debora and Thomas Harding, who both had worked at the award-winning Oxford-based video production company Undercurrents. They applied for a local television license and were successful. They raised the capital to launch the station, set up the broadcast studio in an old nuclear bunker on Woodstock Road, and hired over 60 staff. From the very beginning the channel focused on local stories, particularly sports, business, arts and politics.

The station was launched on 6 June 1999. Within a few months the programming had built a considerable following: over 25% of the potential audience of 500,000 watched each week, a higher audience rating than the local newspaper which had been around for over a hundred years.

Advertising for the station was produced by Tom, Dick and Debbie Productions, founded by Debora Harding, Thomas Harding and Richard Lewis.

The station became known as a training ground for new broadcast journalists. Over one hundred young people learnt the business at the Oxford Channel, and many of them are active in the industry today. The training programme became formalized in 2000 through the Local Television Training company that attracted government money to train unemployed young people from Oxford and taught them the skills of broadcast television. This scheme had a high success rate of placing trainees within the television industry.

In 2001, the board of Oxford Channel voted to raise additional funds for the station. This led to the sale of the business to Aroma, a subsidiary of the Milestone Group. During this transition, most of the staff were laid off by the new owners, including the founders Debora and Thomas Harding, though some of the staff remained in what became known as Six TV.

The Milestone Group company gained further licences to broadcast in Southampton, Fawley, Reading and Portsmouth in 2003 after the re-advertising of the four-year contracts and successfully renewed its contract to broadcast to Oxford. It re-branded as Six TV for the launch of these services.

The channel broadcast a 24-hour service, seven days a week and featured numerous local programmes including the highly popular motoring show 'V6' presented by Chris Ford, as well as the interactive music programme OX900, Wildlife series Wild, which was nominated for an RTS Award, the channel also introduced, a children's section, local sports and local news under the guidance of Managing Director, Nigel Taylor

Six TV's licences to broadcast in Reading and Portsmouth were activated. Despite the channel not launching in these areas, the words "Reading" and "Portsmouth" could be seen under the heading on the company's website.