Manchester is to host a major new national media festival later this year, bringing together movers and shakers in the film, music, gaming, television and digital industries.

The event, called the Media Festival, will take place in November. The focus will be on content creation, production, funding and distribution, as well as the blossoming digital sector.

On the advisory board are BBC Three controller Danny Cohen, Brian Greasley, managing director of Salford's Mediacity:uk and Ten Alps chief executive Alex Connock, reports the Manchester Evening News.

Featuring world-class speakers, the event "promises to be hugely instructive", according to festival chairman Peter Bazalgette, head of TV production company Endemol, the firm behind Channel 4's Big Brother.

"The Media Festival brings together, for the first time; TV, film, music, gaming and social networking - in fact, everyone who is reconfiguring their business model for the digital age. It's now widely accepted we can all learn from each other," said Bazalgette.

Speaking at the Television for the Nations and Regions conference at The Lowry in January, Mr Greasley remarked that more than half of today's TV, radio and music is created by people who were born or who work in the northwest.

He also said the creation of a media hub at Salford Quays represents a "seismic change" in the media industry.