Oxford Broadcasting was founded in 1998 by Debora and Thomas Harding, who both had worked at the award-winning Oxford-based video production companyUndercurrents. They applied for a local television licence and were successful. They raised the capital to launch the station, set up a broadcast studio in an old nuclear bunker on Woodstock Road, and hired over 60 staff. From the beginning, the channel focused on local stories, particularly sports, business, arts, music and politics. The Oxford Channel was launched on 6 June 1999. Within a few months, the station's programming had built a considerable following: over 25% of the potential audience of 500,000 watched each week. Advertising for the station was produced by Tom, Dick and Debbie Productions, founded by Debora & Thomas Harding and Richard Lewis. According to a Reuters Institute report, the channel "also had a strong training programme, which made formal 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, with the station financially broke, the board voted to sell the station and its operating company to Milestone Group. During this transition, most of the staff were laid off by Milestone, who also laid off the station's founders, though a small percentage of the staff remained. Milestone 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. The station was re-branded as Six TV in anticipation of the launch of these services. The channel broadcast a 24-hour service, seven days a week and featured numerous local programmes including a popular motoring show V6 presented by Chris Ford, as well as an interactive music program OX900, and wildlife series Wild, which was nominated for an RTS Award. It 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 but the channel did not launch in those areas.
Fate
The channel's contract to broadcast was set to expire on 30 June 2007; however, Ofcom confirmed that all RSL licences would be extended until the 2012 digital switchover but gave no undertaking that a digital licence would be granted. Milestone concluded that the lack of digital licences rendered the stations non-viable and all channels had ceased broadcasting by April 2009, including the original Oxford channel.
