Anglia Television (PatrZDZ's vision)

**Anglia Television** is the ITV franchise holder for the East of England. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional news bureaux in Cambridge and Northampton. Anglia Television is owned and operated by Informa plc, which also owns Meridian.

Anglia Television broadcasts to Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, northern Hertfordshire, northern Buckinghamshire and the southeastern fringes of Lincolnshire. Its principal programme nowadays is *Anglia News* which is split into two regional editions, both airing at 18:25 on weekdays and various times at weekends.

## History

Anglia Television launched on 27 October 1959 as an independent company serving the East of England, the eleventh ITA station to go on air. At its launch, Anglia broadcast from the Mendlesham Transmitter and was soon joined by Sandy Heath and then Belmont. Under the chairmanship of Aubrey Buxton the station soon established a reputation for producing excellent drama, through a deal with the then-franchise holder for London, Associated-Rediffusion. Anglia also established the long-running nature documentary series Survival. During the early 1960s, it looked towards the unserved portion of south-east England, which was to be served by a transmitter at Dover, as a logical extension to its eastern bailiwick – however, the ITA decided to hand this part of the country to Southern Television instead.

In 1973, the IBA planned to transfer the Belmont transmitter, which served Lincolnshire, north Norfolk and parts of the East Midlands, away from Anglia to Yorkshire Television. The public protested against such a move, especially in parts of north Norfolk. Anglia decided not to publicly fight the IBA plans, after a board member had agreed to produce a film for the IBA explaining why Anglia should be allowed to keep hold of the Belmont transmitter. On 30 July 1974, the transmitter was transferred; due to this change, Anglia's profits were reduced from £2.2 million to £1.29 million. However, by 1976 Anglia had managed to improve its operations, posting results of £1.47 million. Anglia described the improvement as "satisfactory", and its prospects were considered "encouraging".

In 1975, the technicians' union (ACTT) criticised Anglia over the amount of regional programming being produced at the station, stating it had been dramatically decreasing since 1970 to just five hours per week. The concerns were raised to the IBA, who they believed would be able to construe the rapid decline in programming as the failure of Anglia to not fully commit to its obligations for the franchise area.

In December 1976, Anglia dropped the Thames children's series Pauline's Quirkes as it believed it was insufficiently entertaining for its young audience. The company denied the move was due to the high volume of complaints about the content of the series. Thames said it was "surprised" at the decision, as the programme had rated well.

In the autumn of 1977, a commercial Dutch television company was recording Anglia television signals and transmitting its English programmes, including Granada's Coronation Street and its own Survival, to its viewers in Amsterdam. The Dutch government did not believe it was a violation of Dutch copyright law – EBU legal advisers held discussions about to how resolve the matter.

In 1979, a survey carried out by the IBA highlighted Anglia was one of the best known ITV companies – Anglia claimed that this was a testament to the strength of its commitment to a prominent local and national identity.

### 1980s

In 1980, Anglia successfully retained the franchise after defeating a challenge from East of England TV, who wished to operate from Cambridge. In addition, the IBA bowed to public pressure from 70,000 viewers in northern parts of Norfolk who were served by Yorkshire Television via the Belmont Transmitter; many of the viewers had gone to "considerable trouble and expense" to receive Anglia Television. Three new low powered relay stations were built, allowing easier access to Anglia transmissions.

Anglia was one of the first ITV companies to begin 24-hour transmission, launching a full overnight service in August 1987.

### 1990s to present

On 9 July 1990, About Anglia was replaced by a new dual news service, with both editions of Anglia News broadcast from Norwich (long before this became standard practice in other ITV regions). Journalists were also based at seven regional newsrooms and a Westminster bureau. Anglia began providing separate news services for the East and West of the Anglia region.

In 1993, Anglia forged a partnership with American pay-TV network HBO, owned by Time Warner (now WarnerMedia). Under this arrangement, Anglia acquired half-ownership in Citadel, an HBO production subsidiary; Time Warner subsequently acquired 50 percent of Itel, Anglia's distribution unit. In addition, a new company was formed: Anglia Television Entertainment, 51% owned by Anglia and 49% owned by HBO. In 1993, the station took over the cartoon studio Cosgrove Hall, when it was sold off by its original owners, Thames Television, though it remained based in Manchester.

In early 1994, Anglia Television was bought by MAI (owners of Meridian Broadcasting), who merged with United Newspapers to form United News and Media. During its period of UBM ownership, a 'youth' channel was launched to cable and satellite from Anglia Television's facilities, Rapture TV; some productions for the ITV network were also shared with Rapture. Many early programmes for the newly launched Channel 5 were made at Anglia Television, as UNM also owned a stake in the channel.

In January 2018 Informa announced the acquisition of United News and Media (owner of HTV, Anglia and Meridian, as well as the Daily Express, Daily Star and Yorkshire Post newspapers) for £4 billion. The transaction was completed in June 2018.

## Studios

Throughout Anglia's existence, the company has retained its headquarters at Anglia House in Norwich, which contains four studios and offices for the company. As Anglia's production grew the company also expanded, buying a former bowling alley in Magdalen Street in the late 1970s and creating a further studio, referred to as 'Studio E'. While larger productions moved here, as did the news service in 1999, some smaller productions (such as regional programmes) continued at Anglia House.

## Identity

Anglia's original ident was a silver statue of a knight on horseback. At the end, the camera zoomed in on the pennon atop the knight's lance, which showed the station's name. An arrangement by Malcolm Sargent, of Handel's Water Music was played over the film. The Anglia knight logo became so closely identified with the station that when Anglia produced a book to mark its fortieth anniversary in 1999, it was entitled A Knight On The Box. Before the ident, the channel's start-up music was Ralph Vaughan Williams' Sea Songs, which was used from 1959 until the early 1980s. With the introduction of colour television on ITV in November 1969 (although not in the Anglia region until October 1970), the ident was remade with constant lighting, and the knight constantly rotating on a turntable – a longer version of the ident was used at the start of the day's transmission until the mid 1980s.

On Monday 21 March 1988, the knight was replaced by a new identity a quasi-heraldic stylised 'A' made of triangles, designed by Robinson Lambie-Nairn at a cost of £500,000.

## Programmes

Anglia produces around 11 and a half hours a week of regional programming – it provides 6 hours and ten minutes a week of regional news and weather for two news sub regions - East and West. The news service is supplemented by regular current affairs programmes Cover Story and Crime Night and afternoon magazine strand Home Malone.

As part of United Productions, Anglia is the major provider of daytime and religious programmes for the ITV network, led by the weekday chat show Loose Women and the Sunday Morning religious programme. It also produces award-winning documentary programmes for ITV and markets its production facilities and programme making expertise to other broadcasters - including Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky - and across the media spectrum.