These covers can be found all over Eastbourne, and indeed all over the UK and abroad.
From Wikipedia: -
Rediffusion was the trading name of Broadcast Relay Service Limited, founded in March 1928 by Joshua Powell. In January 1929, the company introduced its first cable radio service in Hull to customers frustrated with the difficulties of tuning in weak radio broadcasts. In the customer premises, nothing more than a selector switch and loudspeaker were needed. Initially, the service consisted primarily of rebroadcasts of the BBC Radio service, which was reflected in the trading name: Rediffusion simply means "broadcasting again". Rediffusion quickly branched out into making, renting, and selling radios. With the arrival of the first experimental television broadcasts in the 1930s, Rediffusion began manufacturing TV sets and supplying "Piped TV", an early form of Cable TV, to its customers, until the cessation of television broadcasts during the Second World War.
In 1947, British Electric Traction acquired a substantial minority interest in Rediffusion. BET's financial resources enabled Rediffusion to capitalise on the growth in post war television, which restarted in 1946. Initially, the company installed cable TV systems in blocks of flats in London, and over the next few years expanded outside London. The company was also involved in the sale and rental of television sets. With the passage of the Television Act 1954, Rediffusion joined forces with Associated Newspapers, a subsidiary of Daily Mail and General Trust, to form Associated-Rediffusion, and won the coveted London weekday ITV broadcast franchise. They began broadcasting on 22 September 1955. By 1964, Associated-Rediffusion changed its name to Rediffusion London.
In 1967 the Independent Television Authority ordered Rediffusion London to merge with ABC Weekend TV, the holder of the weekend Midlands and North of England franchises, to form Thames Television, with ABC given the controlling interest and Rediffusion holding 49%. Thames Television was given the new weekday London franchise, with ABC's existing franchises awarded to other companies.
Rediffusion also offered a low-bandwidth cable TV and radio distribution system. This was based on connecting homes with multiple twisted-pair cables. Each pair carried a single TV or radio channel. The system was provided in most United Kingdom towns. Selection of TV or radio station was by means of a rotary switch, usually mounted on a wall or window frame close to the point of entry of the cable into the home. Rediffusion abandoned this system of TV and radio distribution by the end of the 1980’s. The wall mounted switches, external junction boxes and street cable ducts are still visible in places that have not been redeveloped since the late 1980’s. The company also experimented with its local cable operations: a local community station in Bristol ("Bristol Channel") from 1973 to 1976, and an optical fibre system in Hastings in 1976. The Rediffusion retail chain; renting and servicing TVs, radios, VCRs, and hi-fi systems, was common on high streets until it was bought by Granada Rentals in 1984.
On a personal note, I well remember the rotary control box being installed in our home in approximately 1968 (at a guess), and how excited we were (well me anyway!) with this cutting-edge technology! Also, just a few years ago when I was repainting the front fascia of my present home, I decided to remove all the old Rediffusion cabling and junction box. It was amazing how heavy the cabling was when I finally got it all down, obviously nothing like the lightweight fibre-optic cables of today.
Additional information from Kevin Gordon: Although Rediffusion was initially rejected by the Council in 1951 following complaints by radio shops, the decision was overturned a few weeks later.
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