ITV Granada (formerly
Granada Television or
Granada TV) is the Channel 3 regional service for
North West England. The licence for the region has been held by ITV Broadcasting Limited since November 2008. It is the largest independent television-franchise producing company in the UK, accounting for 25% of the total broadcasting output of the
ITV network. It had been held by Granada Television, which was founded by
Sidney Bernstein and based at
Granada Studios on Quay Street in Manchester since its inception. This was the only surviving company of the original four
Independent Television Authority franchisees from 1954; Granada Media Group (parent company of Granada Television) merged with Carlton Communications to form ITV plc in 2004. It covers Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, northwestern Derbyshire, part of Cumbria and North Yorkshire. On 15 July 2009, the Isle of Man was transferred to ITV Granada from
ITV Border (even though the
Isle of Man is a British Crown Dependency and is not part of the
United Kingdom).