The licence, advertised last September, will last for a twelve year period under the Broadcasting Act 1996 and required the regulator to consider how each applicant would promote the development of DAB radio in the UK.
It will allow Channel 4 Radio to launch three brand-new national digital radio stations from July 2008 onwards: E4 Radio, Channel 4 Radio and Pure4.
The 4 Digital Group consortium consists of Channel 4 Radio; Sky News Radio Limited; Emap Digital Radio; UTV Radio; The Carphone Warehouse Group and UBC Media Group.
Other new stations involved in the Channel 4-led consortium include Talk Radio, from UTV; Radio Disney; Sunrise Radio; Closer, a music station targeting women over 30, based around the existing Emap title, Virgin Radio Viva; and a 24-hour rolling news station from BSkyB and Chrysalis, called Sky News Radio.
The unsuccessful National Grid Wireless bid helmed by former Capital Radio chief executive David Mansfield, former TalkSport managing director Mike Franklin and chief executive of Town & Country Broadcasting Jason Bryant, was expected to include 12 new national digital radio services including an adult album station, a station for over-50s and Radio Luxembourg.
Ed Richards, Ofcom chief executive, said: "Today's licence award is an important development for radio listeners who will benefit from a greater variety of commercial national radio services.
"The award will give a real boost to the DAB platform, which we believe will form the cornerstone of radio provision in the future."
Andy Duncan, chief executive of Channel 4, said: "Winning this licence is a significant strategic milestone for Channel 4 and we are incredibly excited by the opportunity it represents.
"It gives us a platform to extend our innovative and highly diverse public service contribution into radio, challenging the BBC's dominance of the medium, opening up new revenue streams to support our broader public service role and giving our audience access to Channel 4's unique content on another fast-developing digital platform."
Nathalie Schwarz, Channel 4's director of radio who led 4 Digital Group's bid, said: "The prospect of launching three brand-new national stations and extending Channel 4's spirit of innovation and risk taking into radio is an inspiring one.
"We genuinely believe Channel 4 can add a fresh perspective to radio in the UK while extending choice for listeners and working with our partners to promote the medium and drive consumer take-up."
The bidding process had been thrown into disarray with the sale of NGW to Australian bank Macquarie, which has other media interests, in April.
The first digital multiplex was awarded to Digital One, a joint venture backed by GCap Media and Arqiva, a technical supplier to the radio broadcast industry.
GCap Media had previously opposed the launch of a second digital multiplex, as it argued that the original terms of the agreement with Digital One had been based on a degree of exclusivity..jpg)
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