Television in New Zealand was introduced in 1960 as a state-run service. The broadcasting sector was deregulated in 1989, when the Government allowed competition to the state-owned TVNZ (Television New Zealand). There are currently three forms of broadcast television: a terrestrial (DVB-T) service provided by Freeview; as well as satellite (DVB-S) and internet streaming (IPTV) services provided nationwide by both Freeview and Sky. The first nationwide digital television service was launched in December 1998 by Sky, who had a monopoly on digital satellite television until the launch of Freeview's nationwide digital satellite service in May 2007. The Freeview digital terrestrial service launched on 14 April 2008. A pay digital terrestrial service was launched in 2012 by Igloo and closed in 2017; this was a joint venture between Sky and TVNZ and provided Freeview UHF aerial channels along with eleven Sky channels. In July 2016, Sky announced that Igloo will be discontinued although Freeview channels will still be available. Up until 2023, Vodafone (now One NZ) operated an IPTV television service, with free-to-air channels and wholesale content from Sky. The digital changeover in New Zealand began on 30 September 2012, when Hawke's Bay and the West Coast (including parts of Tasman) switched off analogue television transmission. The rest of the South Island switched off analogue television transmission on 28 April 2013, followed by the lower North Island on 29 September 2013. The upper North Island (including the Waikato, Auckland, Bay of Plenty and Northland) was the last region to cease analogue transmissions on 1 December 2013. The major free-to-air television operators are currently TVNZ (TVNZ 1, TVNZ 2, and TVNZ Duke) and Sky Network Television (Bravo, Eden, HGTV, Rush, Sky Open and Three). Sky remains the dominant pay-TV operator, now operating on satellite and IPTV.
History The first television experiences were conducted in the late 1920s by Professor Robert Jack, Professor of Physics at the University of Otago. Television research was halted in 1930 due to lack of funds, but he continued to do his successful radio experiments. In 1939, arrangements were held for a television experiment at the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition in Rongotai, which was to be held the following year, and would have tests from a British company. However, on 1 September, World War II broke out and British technicians were forbidden from leaving the UK. It was not until 1949 that an inter-departmental committee was set up to study the introduction of a television service in the country. The committee went abroad to study developments in television, particularly in Australia when the government there provided tenders for the construction of what would become ABN, ABC's Sydney station. They set up a deal with Amalgamated Wireless Australia to supply NZ£10,000 worth of equipment for the first experiment, which arrived to Wellington in February 1951, at NZBS's Waring Street studios. The first broadcast there was conducted on 7 March with an entertainment show supervised by Bernard Beeby. In the rehearsals leading up to the event, early reactions came from the television camera pointing at traffic, a newsboy and shop window displays. There was also a special demonstration for doctors claiming that television would change practical demonstration of surgery by taking the camera to a medical school in Dunedin, but this was not achieved. The first full experiment had an hour-long programme featuring an episode of the film series The Wooden Horse, performances from musicians, a cigarette commercial, a Māori stick game played by the Ngāti Pōneke club, game show The Quiz Kids, a boxing demonstration and other features. Over 2,500 locals got their tickets to take part in the television demonstration; after which, the equipment was sent to Auckland where it was tested at the 1YA Shortland Street facilities. Universities and commercial interests were also setting up their own services. Bernie Withers of the Canterbury University College had also set up an experimental station in 1951, where, after his students tested vacuum tube technology, the team had assembled a closed-circuit broadcast by the end of the year. In 1952, the station, by then using the ZL3XT call sign, was broadcasting over a radius of a few miles in central Christchurch and had also received local and international equipment donations. Still in Christchurch, the New Zealand Radio Traders' Federation held its annual conference there with ZL3XT's experiments giving a notion of the arrival of television; while in Auckland, the local radio traders had teamed up with the Seddon Memorial Technical College to set up a two-year night school course for television technicians, led by Ron Waddell. In late 1953, Ted Grant, who worked at Pye's Akrad factory in Waihi, returned to New Zealand with the assistance of the British parent company to provide NZ£75,000 worth of equipment for a television test at the Royal Wellington Show scheduled for January 1954, coinciding with the visit of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh to New Zealand. This was the first major attempt by a commercial enterprise to push for the introduction of television, as the company's sales of radios had fallen in the post-war years, causing it to find a new source of revenue. An estimated 100,000 people watched the test broadcast at the Royal Show in Wellington which had the participation of Prime Minister Sidney Holland (consequently becoming the first politician to appear on screen); later the equipment went to Auckland for the Easter Show in April, without the British technicians, this time leaving local technicians alone. This was overseen by Ron Waddell and, during the entire fortnight of the event, 175,000 people watched the television demonstrations, which included a television version of Selwyn Toogood's radio game show It's in the Bag. When the experiments ended, the government did not want a regular television service for the time being.
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