Prime (1998–2023) In 1997, the Australian
Prime Media Group, owner of
Seven affiliates in south-eastern Australia (
Prime Television) and regional Western Australia (
GWN) announced its plan to enter the New Zealand TV market. While it was aligned with Seven, it could not air programmes from that network because the rights were already held by the two existing major companies:
TVNZ and
TV3. These limitations proved to be hurdles for the development of the network in New Zealand, as it planned to enter with live sport and feature films. During early 1998, the
United Christian Broadcasters purchased 34 TV licences of UHF spectrum from TVNZ that had been used for the defunct
Horizon Pacific and
MTV channels. Then during June 1998, Prime Television Limited in Australia purchased the unused 34 TV licences from United Christian Broadcasters for approximately
A$3.6 million. The licences covered all major cities and towns, mainly on
UHF, except for the
Gisborne area, which is served via a
VHF signal. On 30 August 1998, Prime Television New Zealand began broadcasting at 6.30 pm with
Two Fat Ladies. Originally the station broadcast classic British programming, documentaries, sports and dramas aimed at the 30 years and above age bracket. In
Waikato and
Christchurch, Prime produced a half-hour nightly news programme. Although these programmes rated well, they were unprofitable. In February 2002, Prime New Zealand entered into an agreement with Australian media mogul
Kerry Packer's
PBL (parent of the Nine Network). Under this five-year agreement, Nine agreed to provide the station with content it owned the rights to, expertise and an amount of cash. In return, Nine was given the right to acquire 54% of Prime New Zealand at the end of the contract. If Prime New Zealand continued to lose money, Nine could choose not to take this up. After this deal, Prime took on a broader and more expensive programming mix and axed the local content to cut costs. This increased ratings and profits significantly. This new format was modelled closely on the
Global Television Network in Canada, whose parent company
Canwest happened to own
TV3 at the time. Almost immediately, some Australian programmes produced by Nine Network and shown on Prime NZ took on a slightly New Zealand flavour. For example, one New Zealander per week began to appear on the Australian version of
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and weather details for New Zealand cities appeared on the Australian
Today breakfast programme. Localisation of Australian programmes increased, with New Zealander
Charlotte Dawson becoming the presenter of a New Zealand version of Nine travel programme
Getaway (Dawson left this position at the end of 2006). Many Australian programmes were simply broadcast on Prime without any adaptation for New Zealand audiences, however. The new line-up was comparable to
TV2, as the British programming was replaced largely by made-for-TV movies and infotainment programmes. In addition to Nine's content, Prime had an output deal with Paramount for films and TV series. During 2003–2004, the number of Australian programmes broadcast decreased. These were largely replaced with more expensive (and higher rated) British and American programmes, such as a Sunday evening British drama slot. On 2 November 2004,
TVNZ presenter
Paul Holmes announced that he was resigning from his
Holmes programme on the state broadcaster and beginning a new one on Prime in 2005. This new programme, called
Paul Holmes, began on 7 February 2005. The arrival of Holmes was seen as a major sign of Prime's rise in status, from a small, second-tier network to a major player on the New Zealand scene, joining TVNZ and TV3 in this regard. The programme, however, did not rate well. In June 2005, Prime moved the show to 6 pm, directly following
Prime News, in an attempt to increase ratings. This was ultimately unsuccessful and Prime TV cancelled the programme on 8 August 2005 due to poor ratings. Holmes returned to host a one-hour weekly current affairs/interview programme, which was still called
Holmes, and screened on Thursday evenings. In 2006, the show was relaunched as a strictly entertainment-oriented talk show and screened on Wednesday evenings. It did not return in 2007, but two "specials" were filmed. For most of 2007, Holmes' work for Prime consisted solely of a weekly opinion segment, broadcast Sunday nights as part of Prime News. In late December 2004, Prime announced it had acquired New Zealand broadcast rights for the new series of
Doctor Who, one of its highest-profile imported shows, which went on to screen in June 2005 to generally good ratings until December 2017 when
TVNZ 2 took over the broadcasting rights to the show. In 2005, Prime announced that it would broadcast a minimum of 5.5% of local programmes, following recommendations from
NZ On Air. From 6 October 2005, Prime showed a weekly programme called ''
New Zealand's Top 100 History Makers'', where a brief biography of notable New Zealanders was shown as ranked by a panel of experts. The final episode, screened on 17 November 2005, showed the rankings of these people as a result of votes collected from the public via
text and Internet. In November 2005,
Sky Television purchased Prime for
NZ$30 million. The deal was subject to
Commerce Commission approval and undisclosed conditions. On 8 February 2006, following receipt of Commerce Commission clearance, Sky Television purchased Prime New Zealand from Australian-based
Prime Television. The acquisition of Prime by Sky Television saw a range of shows screened on Sky channels now included on Prime, these shows included
American Chopper and
MythBusters, which screen on the
Discovery Channel. The move was seen with some concerns from the local television industry, under the grounds that Sky's money would be used to buy content for it. In December 2005, it was announced that Prime had secured the 2006 free-to-air delayed broadcast of
rugby union from TV3. On 4 September 2006, the network relaunched with a modified logo, already seen in print advertisements, and new on-air branding. In April 2008, Prime switch to broadcasting in a lower quality
anamorphic widescreen 16:9 format following the lead of other Freeview and Sky channels. Previously they had opted to use the more proportionally scaled
letterboxed format for 16:9 content. They like other Kordia
PAL analogue broadcasters are using a
14:9 letterbox format on their PAL
simulcast. Prime signed a deal with
CBS Television Distribution to air exclusive first run content from 1 January 2013. On 13 February 2016, Prime underwent a brand refresh and began permanently broadcasting in High Definition. In 2018,
Love Island started showing on this channel shifting from TVNZ 2. On 28 March 2023, Prime updated with a new look featuring the outline version of the 2016 logo. On 17 August 2023, it was announced that Prime would change its name to
Sky Open on 23 August 2023.
High Definition In 2010, Prime HD was temporarily launched only on Sky TV Channel 140 to cover the
2010 Winter Olympics. Prime HD was only available during every Olympics or Commonwealth games on Channel 444. Freeview HD viewers did not have the option to see the Olympic or Commonwealth games in high definition. On 13 February 2016, Prime underwent a brand refresh and began permanently broadcasting in High Definition.
Freeview On 7 May 2007, a consortium of broadcasters including
TVNZ,
MediaWorks (owners of
TV3 and
C4),
Maori Television Service, and
Radio New Zealand launched the non-profit,
free-to-air Freeview service, the nationwide digital free-to-air system in New Zealand. The service was initially broadcast via the
Optus D1 satellite in standard definition only, but in April 2008 extended to a high definition digital terrestrial service which is broadcast in main centres only. Prime was widely expected to be included in the initial group of Freeview channels, but Sky Television had consistently refused to take part, citing poor economics. Broadcasting Minister
Jonathan Coleman then asked officials to invite Sky, Freeview and state-owned transmission company
Kordia to meet him to discuss the matter, but Sky TV spokesman Tony O'Brien was quoted as saying "It is not economic for Prime to be on Freeview at this time." The economics had to do with non-government-owned broadcasters paying less for transmission costs on the government-owned Kordia network. A deal between TVNZ and Sky to have
TVNZ 6 and
7 available to Sky subscribers in exchange for Prime finally being launched on Freeview with a
virtual channel assignment of 10 on 17 August 2009. If Prime would have joined at launch then they may have been able to get a lower assignment, however
virtual channel assignments are only enforced on
certified receivers. It is also noted virtual channel 10 is not far off its usual tuning to push-button 9 on analogue television sets, due to its historic links with the Nine Network, its allocation on Sky's former analogue terrestrial service, and for compatibility with video recorders using the
G-Code scheduling system. Prime joined
Freeview on 17 August 2009 and is broadcasting in the clear on both the satellite and terrestrial services. From October 2013, Sky ceased the encryption on the three regional satellite feeds for Prime, so they could be used for channel locked, Freeview certified satellite receivers. However, TVNZ is still only linking to the Auckland regional feed for all areas. Prime swapped Freeview positions with
Te Reo, on 1 March 2023, with Prime moving to channel 15, and Te Reo moving to channel 10. On 29 January 2026, Sky Open was shifted to Freeview channel 8 as part of a reshuffling of
Sky Free's various channels, taking over the position of
Eden. At the same time, the channel was also made available to stream live on the
ThreeNow app. == News First ==