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Local TV channel set for move across city

Staff at Channel M TV station are set for a move from Manchester city centre to Salford Quays.

The station, owned by GMG Regional Media which recently sold all its press titles in the region to Trinity Mirror, will be based at Laser House, the home of sister station GMG Radio.

It was announced last week that 29 positions at the station would be lost because of plans to dramatically scale down production of content, including scrapping evening news show Channel M Today.

It brought to an end continued speculation over its future after it was left out of the £44m deal with Trinity Mirror.

In its new guise in Salford, Channel M will commission original content from third party producers and be available on Freeview from 12 April.

A GMG spokesperson confirmed the move, adding: “As we said in our announcement, Channel M will no longer produce original programming, and in the short-term the schedule will continue to focus on local archive material, networked news and traffic.

“Looking ahead, there will be opportunities to bring more local content into the schedule, and Channel M has had some discussions with potential partners.”