The Guardian Media Group's Manchester television station, Channel M, has been awarded a licence to broadcast on Freeview.

The station, which already broadcasts on satellite, could be available to as many as 500,000 households across Greater Manchester once the Granada region switches off its analogue transmitters and goes digital this November.

The digital television switchover, which will be completed in 2012, has freed up regional space previously used to stop transmitters interfering with each other. Ofcom will award its next licence in the Cardiff area later this month.