Media regulator, Ofcom, has cleared a new specialist 6 Music stream on BBC Sounds.
The BBC proposed a 24-hour dedicated stream is an extension of the MediaCity-based station. This would focus on indie rock and pop music from the 1980s-2010s as well as new grassroots indie.
The corporation explained that this would target a younger 25-45 audience, which is currently underserved by the main station.
There were no plans to include news output on the service, because it wouldn’t “match the experience it wants to deliver for the target audience as a genre-pure and focused destination.”
Instead it would offer:
- New pre-recorded music programmes, including show featuring emerging talent
- BBC archive content, such as In Their Own Words and the 6 Music Artists Collection
- Simulcasts of Radio 6 Music, including the Indie Forever show.
- Limited repeats of 6 Music programming
Ofcom reviewed the proposals and said that it could go ahead without further scrutiny, because it agreed with the BBC that it was not a new public service and that it wouldn’t have a significant adverse impact on fair and effective competition.
It has previously drawn the same conclusion with the Radio 1 and Radio 3 extensions, but not the Radio 2 one.
BBC research estimated that the new 6 Music stream could generate around 1.4m weekly online listening hours in 2026, compared to 10.2m for the main station. It believed that the loss of listening for competitor stations (Global, Bauer, News Broadcasting) would be between 0.1% and 0.25%.
“We agree that, with the exception of News Broadcasting (Virgin Radio), the stations likely to be affected are those that belong to the two largest commercial groups (Bauer and Global) and we understand that these groups primarily generate revenue based on the number of hours listened across their entire portfolios of stations,” reads the Ofcom report.
“We consider that the launch of the 6 Music additional stream would likely lead to a low loss of listening for these groups. We note that the estimated impact on each operator’s wider portfolio is small, and this finding doesn’t change even if we focus on the impact on each group of competitor stations from each commercial brand.”
On Virgin Radio it believed that its listening figures could be affected, but that it wouldn’t have a “significant impact.”
A BBC spokesperson said:
“We welcome Ofcom’s agreement with our assessment that the new 6 Music extension, available exclusively on BBC Sounds, will not have a significant, adverse impact on fair and effective competition. We look forward to bringing this unique stream, which will tell the story of indie music in a way only the BBC can, to listeners this summer, continuing our commitment to offer audiences even more choice and value from the licence fee.”
