This is a timeline of the history of Anglia Television (now known as ITV Anglia), the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

franchise holder for the

East of England The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. This region was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics purposes from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire ...

1950s

* 1959 ** 27 October – Anglia Television starts broadcasting from

Mendlesham transmitting station The Mendlesham transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, situated close to the village of Mendlesham, near the town of Stowmarket, in Suffolk, United Kingdom (). It is owned and operated by Arqiva. It has a high ...

on VHF channel 11 to Norfolk,

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

and Essex.

1960s

* 1960 ** 2 June – '' About Anglia'' launches as a twice-weekly programme accompanying the 10-minute regional evening news bulletin on weekdays. Its success prompted it to be extended to four nights a week the following September and then every weeknight. * 1961 ** 1 February – The first episode of Anglia's natural history programme '' Survival'' is broadcast on ITV, It had been developed from a regional nature programme called ''Countryman'' which Anglia had broadcast the previous year. * 1962 ** 22 September – Anglia Television becomes the first ITV company to show football highlights on a regular basis when it launches ''Match of the Week'' which shows highlights of matches from around

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

. * 1963 ** No events. * 1964 ** Anglia is given a three-year extension to its licence. This is later extended by a further year. * 1965 ** 5 July – Anglia starts broadcasting on VHF channel 6 from

Sandy Heath transmitting station Sandy Heath transmitting station is a television broadcast station located between Sandy, Bedfordshire and Potton near the B1042. It is owned by Arqiva, formerly NTL Broadcast. It was built in 1965, originally broadcasting Anglia Television on ...

, extending coverage into Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. Until late 1966, there were no morning broadcasts from this transmitter due to a clash with the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory. ** 20 December – Anglia starts broadcasting on VHF channel 7 from Belmont transmitting station, extending coverage into Lincolnshire, eastern Yorkshire and northern parts of Norfolk. * 1966 ** No events. * 1967 ** The Independent Television Authority renews Anglia's licence for a further seven years. * 1968 ** 2 August – A technicians strike forces ITV off the air for several weeks although management manage to launch a temporary

ITV Emergency National Service The ITV Emergency National Service was the management response to the near-complete Independent Television technicians' strike immediately after the 1968 franchise changes took effect.Bowden-Smith, Kif Strike Service'' Vision On, 1 January 2002, ...

with no regional variations. * 1969 ** 7 June – Anglia begins talks with Yorkshire Television about a cost-cutting exercise by sharing equipment and facilities. Neither company planned joint productions or a merger. The reason to form an association was purely down to the costs of the increased levy on the companies advertising revenue by the government and the cost of colour TV. The ITA stated there was no reason why the companies should not have talks about sensible economies that could be made, but would examine all details before any association were to be implemented. ** November – The

Anglia knight The Anglia knight is a sterling silver trophy commissioned by William III of the Netherlands in 1850 for the Falcon Club, a society that met once a year to compete in horse races, falconry and other sports. The trophy weighs over 700 troy ounce ...

ident is remade with constant lighting with 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.

1970s

* 1970 ** 1 January – A warning is given that regionalism would be abandoned and a forced merger between Yorkshire Television and Anglia Television would happen unless the chancellor reduced the levy applied on advertising revenues which the government agreed to a few months later. ** 1 October – Anglia starts broadcasting in colour on UHF from

Sudbury transmitting station The Sudbury transmitting station is a facility for telecommunications and broadcasting transmission at Sudbury, England. It consists of two guyed masts, one, the original, being high, and a second mast (no longer in service) at . They have ant ...

to Suffolk and Essex. * 1971 ** 18 January – The Sandy Heath transmitter begins transmitting in colour on UHF. ** 24 May – Anglia starts broadcasting in colour on UHF from

Tacolneston transmitting station The Tacolneston transmitting station is a facility for both analogue and digital VHF/ FM radio and UHF television transmission near Tacolneston, south-west of Norwich, Norfolk, England. It includes a tall guyed steel lattice mast, which w ...

to Norfolk. On the same day, the Belmont transmitter also begins transmitting in colour on UHF. ** 9 October – Anglia's long-running game show ''

Sale of the Century ''Sale of the Century'' (stylized as ''$ale of the Century'') is an American television game show that originally debuted on September 29, 1969, on NBC daytime. It was one of three NBC game shows to premiere on that date, the other two being th ...

'' airs its first episode. * 1972 ** 16 October – Following a law change which removed all restrictions on broadcasting hours, ITV is able to launch an afternoon service. * 1973 ** No events. * 1974 ** 30 July – Following the 1974 franchise round, the Belmont transmitter in Lincolnshire is switched from Anglia Television to Yorkshire Television. * 1975 ** No events. * 1976 ** No events. * 1977 ** No events. * 1978 ** No events. * 1979 ** 10 August – The ten week ITV strike forces Anglia Television off the air. The strike ends on 24 October.

1980s

* 1980 ** 25 January – Three new low-powered relay stations carrying Anglia are built in North Norfolk to improve reception in that area following public pressure from 70,000 viewers who since 1974 had been served by Yorkshire Television. Many of these viewers had gone to "considerable trouble and expense" to receive Anglia Television. ** 28 December – The Independent Broadcasting Authority announces the new contractors to commence on 1 January 1982 and Anglia Television is reawarded its licence. However, there had been a challenger, from East of England Television. * 1981 ** No events. * 1982 ** No events. * 1983 ** 1 February – ITV's breakfast television service TV-am launches. Consequently, Anglia's broadcast day now begins at 9:25am. ** 6 November – The last episode of the original run of ''

'' airs. * 1984 ** No events. * 1985 ** 3 January – The last day of transmission using the 405-lines system. * 1986 ** No events. * 1987 ** 28 August – Anglia begins 24-hour transmissions with its service 'Through the Night'. ** 7 September – Following the transfer of ITV Schools to Channel 4, ITV provides a full morning programme schedule, with advertising, for the first time. The new service includes regular five-minute national and regional news bulletins. * 1988 ** 21 March *** The silver statue of a knight on horseback ident is consigned to history, having served as Anglia's ident since the station went on air 29 years earlier. It is replaced by a new identity, a quasi-heraldic stylised 'A' made of triangles, designed by Robinson Lambie-Nairn at a cost of £500,000. The knight continued to have a presence as it was moved to the Anglia headquarters reception. ***'' About Anglia'' is given a new look to coincide with the ident change. * 1989 ** 1 September – ITV introduces its first official logo as part of an attempt to unify the network under one image whilst retaining regional identity. Anglia does not adopt the logo and continues to use the ident it introduced the previous year.

1990s

* 1990 ** 9 July – '' About Anglia'' ends and is replaced by ''

Anglia News ''ITV News Anglia'' is a British television news service for the East of England, broadcast and produced by ITV Anglia. History ''Anglia News'' replaced the long-running news magazine programme ''About Anglia'' on Monday, 9 July 1990. Initially ...

''. The change sees Anglia produce two separate news services, East ( Norfolk,

and Essex) and West ( Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Northern

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, Northern

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, Southern Lincolnshire, Southern

Rutland Rutland () is a ceremonial county and unitary authority in the East Midlands, England. The county is bounded to the west and north by Leicestershire, to the northeast by Lincolnshire and the southeast by Northamptonshire. Its greatest len ...

and a small part of Southern

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

). * 1991 ** 1 September – Anglia's ''Through the Night'' service ends. It is replaced by the generic overnight service from London. ** 16 October – The Independent Television Commission announces the results of the franchise round. Anglia Television is reawarded its licence having bid £17.8 million to see off two rival bidders, Three East Television and

CPV-TV CPV-TV (from Chrysalis, Paradine and Virgin) was a company which had bid for three ITV franchises at the 1991 ITV franchise auction. It was a consortium led by Sir David Frost and Richard Branson with further backing from the Chrysalis Group me ...

. * 1992 ** No events. * 1993 ** 16 March – Anglia forges a partnership with American pay-TV network

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

, owned by Time Warner. 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. * 1994 ** 19 February – Anglia Television is bought by MAI (owners of

Meridian Broadcasting ITV Meridian (previously Meridian Broadcasting) is the holder of the ITV franchise for the South and South East of England. The station was launched at 12:00 am on 1 January 1993, replacing previous broadcaster Television South, and is owned an ...

). who merged with United Newspapers to form United News and Media. * 1995 ** No events. * 1996 ** No events. * 1997 ** No events. * 1998 ** 15 November – The public launch of digital terrestrial TV in the UK takes place. * 1999 ** 8 November – A new, hearts-based on-air look is introduced. Anglia adopts the look which features the stylised "A", albeit in a square rather than a flag.

2000s

* 2000 ** No events. * 2001 ** 30 January – After 40 years, Anglia's natural history programme '' Survival'' comes to an end. ** 11 August – ITV’s main channel is rebranded as ITV1. * 2002 ** 28 October – On-air regional identities are dropped apart from when introducing regional programmes and Anglia is renamed ITV1 Anglia. * 2003 ** September – ''

'' is renamed ''Anglia News Tonight''. * 2004 ** 2 February *** The final two remaining English ITV companies, Carlton and Granada, merge to create a single England and Wales ITV company called ITV plc. *** ''Anglia News Tonight'' is renamed ''Anglia Tonight''. *2005 ** No events. * 2006 ** Anglia sells its Magdalen Street studio complex. They had been in use as an additional production base since the late 1970s. ** November – The ITV1 Anglia branding, still seen before some regional programming is dropped. * 2007 ** No events. * 2008 ** Anglia's ''

GMTV GMTV (an acronym for Good Morning Television), now legally known as ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited, was the name of the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor/licensee, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 ...

'' and weekend regional news bulletins become pan-regional. ** December – All non-news local programming ends after

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

gives ITV permission to drastically cut back its regional programming. From 2009, the only regional programme is the monthly political discussion show. * 2009 ** February – ITV makes major cutbacks to its regional broadcasts in England and the two sub-regional news programmes are merged into a pan-regional programme, although more localised news continues to be broadcast as a brief opt-out during the early evening programme.

2010s

* 2010 ** No events. * 2011 ** 23 November – The Anglia region completes its digital switchover. * 2012 ** No events. * 2013 ** 14 January – ''Anglia Tonight'' is renamed '' ITV News Anglia''. ** 16 September – Sub-regional news coverage is reintroduced and the weekday daytime, late evening and weekend bulletins as well as 20 minutes of the 6pm programme are once again more localised.OFCOM sets out licence terms for ITV, STV, UTV and Channel 5
, OFCOM, 23 July 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anglia Television Television in the United Kingdom by year ITV timelines