Granada Television

From The North, ‘Granadaland’ as it was affectionately known arrived on 3rd May 1956 in the North West and 6 months later for Yorkshire. The company was named after a Spanish city and owned by two brothers, Cecil and Sidney Bernstein. Their studios were based in Manchester’s Quay Street and remained there until March 2013 when they moved to Media City in Salford. Granada originally served both sides of the Pennines on weekdays with ABC on weekends. At the 1968 franchise round, the ITA split the region in two, Granada had a seven day franchise for the North West, while newcomers Yorkshire Television got the area east of the Pennines as a seven day franchise. This decision angered Sidney Bernstein, who threatened to take the ITA to the United Nations!! From 1994-2000, Granada took over other ITV franchises. By 2000, they were the owners of LWT, Meridian, Anglia, Tyne Tees, Yorkshire, Border and a partial ownership of HTV and GMTV. 2004 saw the merger of Carlton and Granada to form ITV plc.