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Story: Television

New Zealand television timeline

  • 1950–60

    Experimentation

  • 1 June 1960

    New Zealand Broadcasting Service (NZBS)
    first official transmission (Channel Two, Auckland)

  • 1961

    Christchurch (CHTV3) 1 June;
    Wellington (WNTV1) 1 July

  • 1962

    Dunedin (DNTV2) 31 July;
    NZBS becomes New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC)

  • 1969

    Four stations networked;
    first live network news bulletin

  • 1971

    Warkworth Satellite Station opens

  • 31 October 1973

    Colour transmission in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch; Waikato and Dunedin 1974; rest of the country late 1974–75

  • 14 November 1973

    First live international broadcast (wedding of Princess Anne to Captain Mark Phillips)

  • 1975

    NZBC ends; two networks created
    – Television One and TV2

  • 1976

    TV2 renamed South Pacific Television

  • 1977

    BCNZ (Broadcasting Corporation
    of New Zealand) established

  • 1980

    South Pacific Television and Television One
    combine as Television New Zealand
    (TV1 and TV2)

  • 1988

    TVNZ becomes state-owned enterprise (SOE)

  • 1989

    TV3 first privately owned channel;
    NZ On Air (Broadcasting Commission) begins

  • 1990

    Sky Television launches (first pay television)

  • 1993

    Te Māngai Pāho
    (Te Reo Whakapuaki Irirangi) established

  • May 1996–February 1997

    Aotearoa Television Network

  • 2003

    TVNZ changed from SOE to Crown company;
    charter introduced

  • 28 March 2004

    Māori Television begins

  • September 2012–December 2013

    Switchover from analogue
    to digital transmission

This timeline shows the major developments in both the technical and organisational history of television in New Zealand. Since the introduction of television broadcasting in the early 1960s, there have been two major periods of change: the early 1970s, when colour, direct international feeds and the second network arrived, and the late 1980s, when private broadcasting by TV3 and Sky TV started and TVNZ became a state-owned enterprise. By the 2000s single-channel viewing for limited hours had become multi-channel viewing on many devices at all hours of the day.

Using this item

Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

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How to cite this page

Trisha Dunleavy, Television – History of television in New Zealand, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/diagram/45673/new-zealand-television-timeline (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Trisha Dunleavy, published 13 June 2014.