Ambitious plans for a new Local TV service in Manchester have been given the go-ahead by regulators.

Media watchdog Ofcom has awarded the licence to run local TV services in the city to Your TV, a consortium headed by former BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons.

It is planning one of the biggest local TV operations in the country with 63 staff, including 10 video journalists, and 12 news and sports producers.

Unlike some of the other successful Local TV bidders it plans broadcast 24-hours a day, seven days a week, and is due to be launched in September this year.

Your TV has bid for a number of Local TV franchises including Sheffield and London but Manchester’s is the first it has won.

Ofcom said that it forward a more ambitious proposal than its rival bidders, backed by a strong advisory board which “would help ensure the needs of the locality were taken into account.”

It said the bid also included a higher number of hours, a higher proportion of local programming, and greater quantity of local programming throughout the day.

The last attempt to provide local TV services in Manchester, Channel M, ended in failure.

Originally set up by the Guardian Media Group, which then owned the Manchester Evening News, it was left out of the deal when the paper was bought by Trinity Mirror and closed a few months later.