Anglia Television

On October 27, 1959, ITV debuted in the East of England with Anglia Television, led by Chairman Aubrey Buxton. Anglia quickly gained acclaim for its drama productions and its iconic nature series, ‘Survival’. In 1993, the company acquired Cosgrove-Hall Animation from Thames Television. A year later, Anglia was acquired by Meridian Broadcasting, which subsequently merged with United Newspapers and took over HTV in 1996. Although a merger attempt with Carlton failed in 2000, Granada successfully acquired both Meridian and Anglia. The channel has been operating under the name ITV Anglia since 2004.