OV
Southend (and Basildon) is indeed a strange one being a triple overlap. My family are from Southend, and I've found that generally everyone sticks to the London region as they feel more closely associated with London. I know that Virgin Media in the area carries BBC and ITV London, not sure about Sky but I assume it is the same.
Where it gets confusing is there are areas of Southend which have poor reception of Crystal Palace due to the terrain and tower blocks in the centre of the city blocking the signal. Generally I've found that those who struggle with Crystal Palace signals go for Meridian/BBC South East instead, as the signal is excellent (probably stronger than London, Bluebell Hill isn't far and Kent's just over the water), but there are also Anglia/Look East viewers from Rouncefall (not that I've found them).
The situation was no doubt partially created by the ITV regions from the days before unified schedules and the single national ITV that we have now, when they all claimed to have Southend as part of their patch for ad sale purposes, and viewers would have gone for the schedule they preferred. These days ITV consider it to be London's patch, and that's that.
Where it gets confusing is there are areas of Southend which have poor reception of Crystal Palace due to the terrain and tower blocks in the centre of the city blocking the signal. Generally I've found that those who struggle with Crystal Palace signals go for Meridian/BBC South East instead, as the signal is excellent (probably stronger than London, Bluebell Hill isn't far and Kent's just over the water), but there are also Anglia/Look East viewers from Rouncefall (not that I've found them).
The situation was no doubt partially created by the ITV regions from the days before unified schedules and the single national ITV that we have now, when they all claimed to have Southend as part of their patch for ad sale purposes, and viewers would have gone for the schedule they preferred. These days ITV consider it to be London's patch, and that's that.