ITV Granada and Coronation Street will not be moving to Salford Quays.
 
The decision follows a dramatic breakdown this week in talks about transferring staff from the current Quay Street HQ in Manchester city centre to the Media City development.
 
ITV chief operating officer John Cresswell told staff they would stay at their current workplace for the "foreseeable future".

He said: “Negotiations between ourselves and the MediaCity developers, the Peel Group, have broken down.

“The Peel Group has dramatically scaled back its financial commitment to the ITV element of the project, and as a result we will be remaining at Quay Street for the forseeable future.”
 
ITV had been moving forward with plans to move Coronation Street cobble-by-cobble to a new location at Trafford Wharfside, across the water from the new BBC North HQ at MediaCity.

Terminated

But a major shift in Peel’s position in recent days in relation to the ITV plans is understood to have made the transfer economically unviable.
 
ITV have now 'terminated' negotiations with Peel, with insiders saying the figures simply no longer added up.
 
Mr Cresswell added: “Our aim throughout this process has been to safeguard the future of Coronation Street and get ourselves a much better working environment.
 
“That means our priority will be to ensure that Quay Street is fit for purpose. In the coming months we’ll be taking a detailed look at the site and deciding what actions we need to take to ensure that we can continue to produce top quality programmes in Manchester.
 
“It’s a pity that negotiations over Salford have had to end in this way, but it does mean we can now focus on carrying on the proud tradition of production at Quay Street.”
 
Plans had been drawn up to build a near identical Weatherfield exterior set plus new studios. There were also talks about sharing resources with the BBC.
 
But a major shift in the goalposts over the finance of the deal has led to the transfer being scrapped.