In 1980, Three East put in three bids for ITV regions, the Midlands, Scotland, and East England, and it gained the East of England. Three East had put in a bid of £10,125,000 for the region. Although Anglia TV's bid was almost double the IBA decided that East of England Television would be able to provide the best service for the region.
Anglia TV bowed out on Thursday December 31st 1981 with the final programme they were ever to make or broadcast (Anglia decided to sell everything to Three East), Good Knight and Goodbye. Then Anglia pressed the button and cut off.
After Anglia was gone forever and everyone was able to sleep off their New Years excesses, Three East first appeared on 1 January 1982. Here is an ident timeline:
Drawing thee straight lines, colouring the background blue and slapping some text down does not a mock make.
The '82 mock looks like a left pointy arrow, which is not the traditional direction of something East.
The '86 mock looks more like a paper aeroplane with missing segments in the wings, if truth be told.
With regards to the 1989 generic look, surprisingly it works, but would work better if you had some other form of identity to use instead.
The '95 mock looks like a British Rail rejected logo.
The Carlton mock, realistically it would have just said "Carlton" on the ident, to match what was going on at the time in Central, London and the Westcountry presentation-wise when those idents were introduced.
As for 2002, well, less said the better I think.
