Sidney Bernstein

Sidney Lewis Bernstein, Baron Bernstein (30 January 1899 – 5 February 1993) was a British businessman and media executive who was the founding chairman of the London-based Granada Group and the founder of the Manchester-based Granada Television in 1954. Granada was one of the original four ITA franchisees. He believed the North's media industry had potential to be cultivated.

Although born in Essex, Bernstein became an adopted northerner, building Granada Television, which created a proud heritage of television broadcasting in Manchester; a legacy which continues. He is described by the British Film Institute (BFI) as the "dominant influence on the growth and development of commercial television in Britain".Bernstein was awarded a life peerage by Queen Elizabeth II in the 1969 Birthday Honours List for his services to television, and in 1984 he was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of his outstanding contribution to British television culture. Born to a Jewish family, Bernstein left school at 15 and he gradually inherited the property portfolio his father had built.