| Type | Broadcast television |
|---|---|
| Country | Auckland, New Zealand |
| Availability | Nationally (New Zealand) and some Pacific Island nations such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands. |
| Founded | 1980 |
| Slogan | Our Nation Our Voice. |
| Key people | Rick Ellis, Anton Vassilenko |
| Official website | TVNZ.co.nz |
Television New Zealand, more commonly referred to, and stylized as TVNZ, is a government-owned corporation television network broadcasting in New Zealand and parts of the Pacific. It operates TV1, TV2, TVNZ7, TVNZ Heartland, TVNZ U and new media services.
A board is appointed by Minister of Broadcasting Jonathan Coleman to oversee TVNZ. Members are the chairman Sir John Anderson KBE (Wellington), Anne Blackburn (Auckland), Bryan Gould CNZM (Opotiki), Sir John Goulter, KNZM, JP (Paihia), June McCabe (Auckland) and Joan Withers (Auckland).[1]
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TVNZ was created in 1980, through the merger of Television One and TV2 (formerly South Pacific Television). Until 1988 it was paired with Radio New Zealand as the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand (BCNZ).
Approximately 90% of TVNZ's revenue is from commercial activity (such as advertising and merchandising). The remainder of its funding comes from government funding agencies.
The Labour-led government under Helen Clark from 1999-2008 pursued a programme of public broadcasting reforms. New Zealand’s wide-ranging adoption of neoliberal policies in the mid-1980s and 1990s had large sections of the state sector privatised. As a state owned enterprise, TVNZ enjoyed enormous commercial success (sustaining two thirds of the overall audience share) and paid the Crown substantial dividends (over $250 million between 1989 and 1999). However, the commercial success had been achieved through an unabashed pursuit of ratings through populist and tabloid content, and prior to the 1999 election the National-led government was evidently positioning TVNZ for privatisation Labour-led administrations since 1999 explicitly recognised the market failures of a wholly commercial broadcasting sector (e.g. saturation-level advertising, low levels of local content, heavy reliance on cheap imports and a disregard for quality genres and in-depth news and current affairs) and re-emphasised television’s cultural and democratic functions in their policy thinking.
The Clark government’s highest profile broadcasting reform to date was the restructuring of TVNZ as a Crown Entity in 2003. This introduced a dual remit whereby the broadcaster had to maintain its commercial performance (continuing dividend payments to the Crown) while simultaneously implementing a new public service Charter.
The TVNZ Charter would require the negotiation and reconciliation of potentially contradictory commercial and public service imperatives. The final version of the TVNZ Charter included a range of public service objectives and expectations.
However, this dual remit precluded any transformation of TVNZ into fully-fledged public service broadcaster, and TVNZ’s efforts to balance its pursuit of commercial performance and Charter objectives were soon being criticised. Despite some investment in local content, including new documentaries and discussion programmes, the content on TV One and TV2 remained similar to the pre-charter schedules, with a continuing high proportion of light entertainment and reality-TV shows.
TVNZ continues to pay dividends to the Crown. However from 2006 until 2009 TVNZ received $15.11 million each year from Government to assist it with fulfilling Charter obligations. There was much debate about the initial secrecy surrounding funding allocations and the programmes supported. The allocation of $5 million toward coverage of the 2008 Olympics, the rights for which are secured by a competitive tender between broadcasters, was possibly the most controversial. In 2009 the Government gave control of that funding to funding agency NZ On Air. NZ On Air announced the creation of the contestable "Platinum Fund" in April 2009, setting aside the $15.11 million for high quality drama, documentary and other programme types. Following the election of a National Party-led government under John Key in 2008, the Charter was abolished in favour of a return to the 1990s model of a full commercial broadcaster. [1]
There is much debate on the future of TVNZ, which focuses on the nature of public service broadcasting and its commercial role. An example was in a memo called A More Public Broadcaster [2] written by outgoing Chief Executive Ian Fraser to the board of TVNZ in October 2005, was obtained and released by Green MP Sue Kedgley. The memo outlined three options.
These were:
On 15 February 2006, a group of 31 prominent New Zealanders signed an open letter, published as a full-page newspaper advertisement, calling for better quality programmes and less advertising on TVNZ. These included mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary, and former Governors-General Sir Michael Hardie Boys and Dame Catherine Tizard. However, they were accused of being out of touch and nostalgic for local programmes from the 1970s, when New Zealand had only one or two TV channels.
While the Broadcasting Minister, Steve Maharey ruled out turning TVNZ into an entirely non-commercial broadcaster, on 25 February, he stated that the Labour Government was "pretty much settled" on the introduction of two new free-to-air, non-commercial channels available via digital television. One channel could show high-end international documentaries, re-runs of One News and minority programmes with a high local content, and another, primarily for children, screening serious drama and arts at night. [4]
On 14 November 2006, TVNZ announced plans to launch two commercial-free digital channels. The first, with the working title TVNZ News 24, would feature news, sport and special interest content, and be launched in late 2007. This would be followed by a channel featuring children's, families', arts and documentary programming, with the working title of TVNZ Home, in early 2008. [5] While 80 per cent of the programming would be local content, 70 per cent of this would consist of repeats from TVNZ's existing channels or its archive.
The proposal was criticised by TV3, which accused the Government of "bailing out" TVNZ and argued that the money would be better spent on new programming [6] Although Sue Kedgely welcomed the decision to make the channels (including children's programming) commercial-free, she accused the Government of tight-fistedness.[7]
In addition to debates over whether TVNZ should be a public broadcaster or a commercial one, there have been other controversies.
For 3 weeks in January-February 1999, John Hawkesby became a weekday newsreader for ONE News, replacing Richard Long (who moved to presenting weekend bulletins alongside Liz Gunn). The change was short-lived, and Hawkesby received a $5.2m payout.
In 2000, the Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled against TVNZ over inaccuracies in a news story about the drug Lyprinol, which was erroneously touted as a cure for cancer. [8]
In 2004 current affairs veteran of 15 years Paul Holmes sparked a public outcry after he referred to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan as a "cheeky darkie" on his radio show on Newstalk ZB and subsequently chose not to renew his contract at TVNZ.
Also in 2004 there was the public outcry over newsreader Judy Bailey's $800,000 salary package, negotiated with head of news and current affairs at TVNZ Bill Ralston, she finished her final 12-month contract the following year after 34 years working at the broadcaster.
In late 2010, TVNZ garnered criticism over various comments made by Breakfast host Paul Henry. Henry had referred to Delhi Commonwealth Games organiser Sheila Dikshit as "the dip shit woman" and "Dick Shit", going on to state that "it's so appropriate, because she's Indian, so she'd be dick-in-shit wouldn't she, do you know what I mean? Walking along the street... she's just so funny, isn't she?"[2] Henry also questioned whether the Governor-General of New Zealand Anand Satyanand was "even a New Zealander", going on to ask, "Are you going to choose a New Zealander who looks and sounds like a New Zealander this time ... are we going to go for someone who is more like a New Zealander this time?"[3][4] Following widespread public complaints and official criticism, Henry was suspended from TVNZ for 2 weeks without pay, eventually resigning from the broadcaster. Henry's resignation polarised the New Zealand public, with supporters claiming he was a victim of political correctness, and critics accusing him of pandering to the lowest common denominator. [5]
TV One has a broad range of programming including ONE News and Current Affairs and ONE Sport, with overnight news coverage provided with BBC World News.
The channel, once the traditional home of television sport, has since lost the rights to most of the world's main sporting events, including the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games and All Blacks test matches to pay television competitor Sky.
TV2 targets a younger audience than TV One. TV2's line up consists of dramas, sitcoms, and reality shows, most of which are produced in New Zealand or imported from the United States.
Locally produced content includes: Shortland Street, Motorway Patrol and What Now?, and international shows (which are predominantly American) include: Two and a Half Men, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and Gossip Girl.
TVNZ 7, launched in March 2008, is a commercial-free 24-hour news and information channel. It is available via the Freeview and Sky platforms. The New Zealand Government has decided to discontinue funding for TVNZ 7, so the channel will cease broadcasting in 2012.
TVNZ Heartland is a pay-TV channel that launched on the SKY Television platform on 1 June 2010. It is TVNZ's first channel available exclusively on a pay-TV platform and will feature 100% New Zealand made programming, mostly sourced from the TVNZ archives.
TVNZ have a large variety of both New Zealand and international shows on TVNZ ondemand, however they are unavailable to watch three months after airing, and the service is not suited for dialup use.
TVNZ ondemand is Television New Zealand's online television viewing and downloading website, launched in March 2007. Although the content on this site is only available from within New Zealand, a selection is made available to an international audience via their YouTube channel.
Internationally, TVNZ has helped provide television services in Pacific Island nations such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands. While TVNZ provides much of the programming, scheduling and continuity are done locally.
Because of its history TVNZ has inherited and developed its own services in the production and broadcasting services area. These include The New Zealand Television Archive, production facilities, television school.
TVNZ also operated the website nzoom.com for a number of years. The site was an internet portal with news purchased from Radio New Zealand its own content and also content produced by its own staff. It was rebranded in 2004 as tvnz.co.nz.
On 26 March 2009 TVNZ announced that it had acquired a 33% stake in Hybrid Television Services (67% owned by Australia's Seven Media Group). Hybrid TV is the exclusive licensee of TiVo products in Australia and New Zealand. On the same day it was announced that TiVo would be arriving in New Zealand by Christmas 2009 (Hybrid launched it in Australia in July 2008).[6]
Between 1995 and 1997, TVNZ operated a network of regional TV stations under the 'Horizon Pacific' name and through a subsidiary called Horizon Pacific Television. Its broadcasted content included BBC World and NZ documentary programming. The network consisted of newly formed stations in Hamilton, Wellington and Dunedin and CTV, a station they purchased based in Christchurch. CTV is still broadcasting, but is no longer owned by TVNZ.
Horizon Pacific was replaced by a local 'free to air' version of the music video channel MTV, based on MTV's UK service and local programming, although the channel was dropped in 1998. Prior to MTV's demise, TVNZ had bought the channel's competitor, MaxTV.[7]
TVNZ also operated a satellite services division organising and downlink facilities and across the globe, but this service was wound down in 2005.
New Zealand uses PAL B (7 MHz channel spacing) on VHF, and PAL G (8 MHz channel spacing) on UHF.
New Zealand has a near nationwide implementation of NICAM stereo sound for TV One and TV2. NICAM stereo was first made available on TV2 in the Auckland region in 1989, also during the early 1990s Simulated Stereo was available in Wellington on TV2. NICAM stereo was not rolled out to the rest of the country or onto TV One until 1996 and for some regions (such as Southland) NICAM was not available until 2001. Rival networks TV3 has offered NICAM stereo in all available regions since its launch in 1989 this is also the case with Prime TV. Stereo sound is available on all TVNZ channels if accessed through Sky Digital or Freeview.
TVNZ has offered HD broadcasts since July/August 2008, when the 2008 Summer Olympics were broadcast in High Definition. The service is offered on the Freeview|HD platform, using DVB-T transmission. Only TV One and TV2 are offered in HD, and the majority of programming is still up-converted from Standard Definition. From 1 July 2009 the HD versions of TV One and TV2 became available to Sky TV subscribers who have the MySky HDi decoders. Content on the HD versions of TV One and 2 are the same as the Standard Definition versions however when watching certain shows that broadcast in High Definition the HD logo is displayed next to the channel logo, this logo is not seen when watching the same show on the Standard Definition versions of TV1 and 2.
TVNZ has adopted 1080i as their HD broadcast format.
TVNZ's transmission network is operated by Kordia, formerly a subsidiary of TVNZ known as Broadcast Communications Limited until 2006. The company owns and operates the terrestrial transmission network used for broadcast of all major terrestrial television networks in New Zealand, including TV3 and Prime Television - TVNZ's major competitors, along with other voice and data telecommunications services.
Along with TV3 both of TVNZ's current television networks TV1 and TV2 are fed as distinct feeds to viewers based on defined regions though this is only for the purpose of targeted regional advertising as the company discontinued regional news programming in the late 1980s. TVNZ's predecessor, NZBC started as distinct stations in the major metropolitan centres. Nationwide networked services were first introduced in 1969 to broadcast a tape of the moon landing flown specially from Australia simultaneously across all stations. TVNZ also used to run Telethons up until 1990 at locations around the country, viewers would be shown full coverage of the Telethon nearest their location. Originally when TVNZ began broadcasting TV1 and TV2 on Sky Digital at the end of 2001 viewers would see only nationwide or Auckland advertisements when watching these channels through the Sky Digital service. In 2004 this was changed to show advertisements from either Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch with viewers outside of these regions seeing advertisements from the closest region. This was again dropped in March 2007 with a return to only nationwide advertising on TVNZ channels on Sky Digital. Today TVNZ only produces regional advertising for TV One, TV2 shows the same advertising across all of New Zealand. Regional advertising is shown on TV One on both Digital and Analogue platforms however those that receive the HD version of TV One through mySky HD will see Auckland advertisements.
TV One, TV2, TVNZ 6 and TVNZ 7 are available "in the clear" over DVB-S on Optus D1. A SKY set-top box is not required, any satellite set-top box or tuner will work.
TVNZ's functions are subject to lifeline utility requirements under NZ civil defence legislation. In practice, this status as a lifeline utility requires TVNZ to be able to function at least to a reduced level after an emergency, and to provide advice to civil defence authorities when requested.
TVNZ's major competitors in the television market are
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