[lookoutwales]

When did Channel M begin? Did they bid for the Manchester local licence? They really should have got it by default - would surely have made sense to kick start the local network using any long established incumbents, although I think only the NI analogue broadcaster switched over.

They launched on a restricted service licence on Valentine's Day 2000, extending to NTL cable in 2004, Sky in 2006 and Freeview in April 2010 (though it closed on Sky and Virgin Media the following September)

They never went for the Manchester licence because they had decided that the Government's rollout plan for local channels was unviable, hence their closure in April 2012 (shortly before the first winners of the new licences were announced)

That was about two years after in-house production ended, though GMG had been keeping Channel M in a holding pattern until the rollout plans emerged - and the only local output consisted of programming from Salford University, one or two other indie producers and those Real Radio simulcasts.

Even if Channel M had won the licence and / or had resumed its own production, it probably would have been very different from what had been before - the sale of MEN (and its sister local titles) to Trinity Mirror was pretty much the final death knell. By then, even the three-hour Channel M Today was reduced to a one-hour show on a loop.