When GMG confirmed the sale of its regional arm, GMG Regional Media, to fellow publisher Trinity Mirror in February this year Channel M was not included in the sale.
In a statement GMG said it has informed staff that, "despite interest from a number of parties, a viable offer for the station has not emerged".
In the short term Channel M will broadcast a mixture of archive material, traffic and networked news. It will no longer broadcast its evening magazine show and will stop producing original news and features.
GMG said Channel M was not sustainable in its current form due to the absence of a committed buyer, the loss of access to news from MEN Media, and the costs associated with the requirement to leave the Urbis building.
As a consequence of the changes GMG has proposed to reduce the number of people employed by Channel M from 33 to four and has entered into consultation with those affected.
The regional multiplex Channel M is broadcast on is owned by GMG and has capacity for four channels. In January Channel M Television was granted licences for three teleshopping channels from Ofcom.
GMG said it will remain the owner and operator of both Channel M and the associated Freeview multiplex business in Manchester and declined to comment on its future plans for the channels.
The Trinity Mirror deal will complete on 28 March. When the purchase was announced Trinity Mirror Regionals managing director Georgina Harvey said Trinity Mirror chose not buy Channel M because it is "based on the city TV model which Trinity Mirror believes is unviable going forward".
In April 2009 MEN Media announced it was to cut the broadcasting hours of its regional TV station Channel M to three hours a day and make 41 staff redundant in order to reduce costs.
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