Local television service had been operating on a severely reduced basis since 2010

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

Manchester local television service Channel M has been shut down after 12 years on air.

The digital TV station has been operating on a severely reduced basis since 2010 following the sale of parent company Guardian Media Group's regional newspapers in the north-west to rival publisher Trinity Mirror.

The chief executive of GMG Radio, Stuart Taylor, who oversaw Channel M for the last two years, said the government's plans for local TV did not offer a viable future for the station. GMG also publishes MediaGuardian.

Taylor said: "We've been in a holding pattern with Channel M for two years awaiting the outcome of the government's future plans for local TV.

"Sadly, we don't feel they provide us with the framework needed to grow Channel M into a profitable business that delivers the quality service viewers and advertisers expect from GMG.

"I want to thank Channel M controller John Furlong and his team for all they have done through this difficult period."

The station was due to stop broadcasting on Monday with the loss of three jobs.

Channel M, which began life as Manchester Student Television in 2000, broadcast to the Greater Manchester area on Freeview.

The on-air offering was cut back in 2010, with the loss of about 30 staff, to a mixture of archive material, traffic and networked news. It also included simulcasts of GMG Radio output, the stable of stations which includes Real Radio and Smooth Radio.

These 2010 changes, which followed the sale of the Manchester Evening News and GMG's other regional papers in the north-west to Trinity Mirror, came a year after 41 staff were axed as part of an earlier cost savings drive.

Under culture secretary Jeremy Hunt's plans for local television, the government is expected to license the first local TV stations by this summer, with the first 10 to 20 services expected to be in operation by 2015.

The initiative has also proved controversial, with shadow culture secretary Helen Goodman describing it as a "vanity project" undeserving of £120m of public money from the BBC licence fee.

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