ITV Anglia

ITV Anglia, previously known as 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. ITV Anglia is owned and operated by ITV plc under the licence name of ITV Broadcasting Limited.

ITV Anglia broadcasts to Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, northern Hertfordshire, northern Buckinghamshire and the southeastern fringes of Lincolnshire and Leicestershire. Its principal programme nowadays is ITV News Anglia which is split into two regional editions, both airing at 18:00 on weekdays and various times at weekends.

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, eastern Yorkshire, northern Norfolk and eastern Nottinghamshire, 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^[who?] 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 as 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.^{[citation needed]}