Its announcement comes days after the launch of NMETV, the 24-hour channel now available on Sky Digital 337 in partnership with CSC Media.

IPC claims the brand’s multimedia approach is significantly different from its more traditional rivals and better reflects the media consumption of their target audience.  

Paul Cheal, publishing director at NME, said: “For NME, it’s the next logical step. With an average readership of 499,000 each week and 1.6 million unique users on NME.com every month, the NME brand already has fantastic reach amongst an audience who are notoriously difficult to target.

“Launching a radio service which allows that audience to hear NME recommended artists first, as well as the very best in indie music, is very exciting for our readers, users and of course our advertisers.”

NME Radio will be available from launch in mid-2008 on various national digital broadcast platforms and to the 1.6 million unique users of NME.com. It will be broadcast from new DX Media studios at the NME’s Blue Fin Building in Southwark, London.

It will also become part of integrated pitches for the IPC Ignite sales team, allowing clients to extend their campaigns across all platforms.

Sammy Jacob, managing director at DX Media, added: “'Indie' has become the mainstream although it might be fairer to say the mainstream has become indie, and in the process – like so many other credible genres – has marginalised the very foundations upon which it was built. 

“NME Radio will re-address the balance – giving much needed exposure to the great new acts that tend to get ignored by traditional broadcast media thereby making radio more relevant in an increasingly fragmented market."