Sidney Bernstein, Baron Bernstein

Sidney Lewis Bernstein, Baron Bernstein (January 30, 1899 – February 5, 1993) was a British media baron who was known as the founding chairman of the London-based Granada Group and the founder of the Manchester-based Granada Television in 1954.

In 1954, he founded Granada Television which was one of the original four ITA franchisees and believed "the North"'s media industry had potential to be cultivated. Granada Television eventually which became one of the most successful British production companies in history and still produces programmes in 2011 under the ITV Studios moniker.

Although born in Essex, Bernstein became an 'adopted northerner' and he has been considered one of Manchester's business greats by building Granada Television.

Biography

Granada Theatres

While in his early twenties, he inherited from his father a handful of small London cinemas. He built, with his brother Cecil, a successful circuit of some sixty cinemas and theatres, the first step in the creation of a diversified group of leisure-oriented enterprises. The Bernstein holdings eventually encompassed interests in publishing, real estate, motorway services, retail shops, and bowling alleys, as well as the hugely profitable television-rental business.

Bernstein had been aware of the commercial potential of television from its earliest days, but his socialist principles prevented him from questioning the BBC's monopoly. Bernstein was actually...
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