Six TV
| Six TV | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Launched | June 1999 |
| Closed | April 2009 |
| Owned by | Oxford Broadcasting (1999–2009) (a subsidiary of Milestone Group from 2001–2009) |
| Formerly called | The Oxford Channel (1999–2001) |
|
Availability
|
|
| Terrestrial | |
| Analogue — Southampton (Fawley) | UHF channel 29 (vision carrier = 535.25 MHz) |
| Analogue – Southampton (Millbrook) | UHF channel 55 |
| Analogue — Oxford | UHF channel 47 (vision carrier = 679.25 MHz) |
Six TV was the sixth free to air terrestrial television channel in the UK, broadcast in Oxford, Southampton, Reading and Portsmouth. It was also the final analogue network to have been launched after BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 but only just. It operated under a set of Restricted Television Service Licences and broadcast on UHF channel 47 in Oxford and UHF channel 29 in Southampton. It was owned by Oxford Broadcasting, who launched the channel in 1999; Oxford Broadcasting was then sold to Milestone Group in 2001, who closed all operations by April 2009.
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 licence and were successful. They raised the capital to launch the station, set up the broadcast studio in an old nuclear bunker on , and hired over 60 staff. From the very 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 Harding, Thomas Harding and Richard Lewis.
The station became known as a training ground for new broadcast journalists. Over one hundred young people learned the business at the Oxford Channel, and many of them are active in the industry today. Despite an investigation by BECTU that proved that much of the training was never carried out, training program became formalized in 2000 through the Local Television Training company. This scheme had a very low success rate of placing trainees within the television industry.
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