vorbei wrote:Thank you for such a comprehensive and detailed answer! It does seem odd, though, that Bedfordshire (including Luton) is provided with the London service on BBC and ITV when it is in the East (West) regions of both.
Its the crazy way the government cable authority of the time carved up the country into areas that didn't match region boundries. They were only interested in the maximum they could get from selling the area franchises, so the result was network build-out from where the 'money' was in London instead of locally. Parts of Kent, Sussex, Surrey & Hampshire are also part of the London area on cable, as you can see below.
London franchises in yellow