GMG plans to relaunch Channel M
GUARDIAN Media Group (GMG) is planning to relaunch Channel M in May – a year after it was mothballed.
The channel was part of GMG’s MEN Media business – publisher of the Manchester Evening News – but newspaper group Trinity Mirror was not interested in taking it on when it bought the division in March.
GMG held on to it but axed new programming and cut nearly all 33 staff. It continued to broadcast on Freeview screening repeats and free content.
According to the Press Gazette the station’s new controller John Furlong announced its resurrection at the Local Television conference in London last week.
He said the channel will once again produce original content scheduled for primetime slots while it would carry community programming, student content and local political shows during the day.
Channel M , founded 10 years ago, was at the heart of GMG’s blueprint for the future of converged regional journalism, but struggled to compete against the might of the BBC and ITV.
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