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. Prime Minister
Walter Nash had made a surprise announcement (a surprise both to the
NZBS and to other members of the
Labour government) in London in November 1959 that New Zealand would have television within twelve months; the system was to be state-owned but to carry commercials, and would be introduced in stages in the four main centres. The first non-experimental programme was transmitted on Wednesday 1 June 1960. New Zealand, like Australia and most of western Europe, adopted the
625-line standard for television. In contrast, United Kingdom used the
405-line standard exclusively until 1964. Initially, programming was done on a regional basis, with different services broadcasting from the main cities,
AKTV2 in
Auckland, being the first on 1 June 1960, followed in 1961 by
CHTV3 in
Christchurch on 1 June and
WNTV1 in
Wellington on 1 July, and then
DNTV2 in
Dunedin on 31 July 1962. There was no network between the stations at the time; tapes of shows were transferred between each station for broadcast, usually starting in Auckland and working their way south to Dunedin. Today, however, programming and scheduling is done in Auckland where all the major networks are now headquartered. National won the
1960 election, and the new Minister of Broadcasting,
Arthur Kinsella in the new
National government rewrote the Broadcasting Act of 1936, and set up the state-owned
New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC) in 1962 to control public radio and television (although the party had been polarised between having a state-owned, private enterprise or mixed system). Advertising was introduced to Aucklanders on 4 April 1961, and facilitated increasing transmission hours to twenty-eight per week. By 1962 there were 65,000 licences, by 1963 there were 80,000 licences and an estimated audience of 300,000 or one-eighth of the population, and by 1966 there were half a million licences. equivalent to $5,600 in December 2021 dollars. Initially, the hours of transmission were from 5pm until close at about 10pm, later extending, in 1966, to 2pm opening. A test pattern was transmitted from 9am to allow for adjustment of TV sets in homes by technicians. The four stations were networked in 1969. The network was mostly complete in time for the
Apollo 11 mission in July 1969, with gaps filled by strategically-placed outside broadcasting vans to allow the film of the landing to be broadcast live across the country. The NZBC's first live network news bulletin was read by
Dougal Stevenson on 3 November 1969. The
Warkworth satellite station opened in 1971, providing the first real-time television link between New Zealand and the rest of the world. The NZBC had asked the Government for the approval of a second TV channel as early as 1964, but this was rejected as the Government considered increasing coverage of the existing TV service to be of greater priority. By 1971, however, two proposals for a second channel were under consideration: that of the NZBC for a non-commercial service; and a separate commercial channel to be operated by an Independent Television Corporation, headed by
Gordon Dryden. Although the Broadcasting Authority had favoured the Independent Television Corporation bid, the incoming
Labour government favoured the NZBC's application and awarded it the licence without any formal hearings beforehand. (Eventually, Independent Television was awarded
NZ$50,000 in compensation.) On Wednesday 31 October 1973, colour television using the
Phase Alternating Line (PAL) system was introduced, in readiness for the
1974 British Commonwealth Games, which were to be held in Christchurch in January and February 1974. In February 1975, black-and-white televisions sets cost on average $350 (equivalent to $3,900 in December 2021) while colour television sets cost on average $840 (equivalent to $9,400 in December 2021). In November 1989,
TV3, now known as Three became the first privately owned TV station in the country, finally ending the state monopoly. Restrictions on foreign ownership were also removed, and TV3 was subsequently sold to Canada's
CanWest. Sky TV, in which TVNZ originally had a small stake, began broadcasting New Zealand's first pay TV service on three
UHF channels in May 1990. Although TVNZ had to compete with its commercial rivals through the 1990s, it maintained a dominant market position and paid a significant amount of its profits to the Crown in dividends. By 1998–1999, the
National Party–led coalition was moving to privatise TVNZ and announced that the broadcasting fee would be discontinued. Since the 1970s, the licence fee had been capped at NZ$100 a year, and was not allowed to increase with inflation. In real terms, this meant that public funding of broadcasting in New Zealand was greatly reduced by the time of the broadcasting fee's abolition. However, the 1999 election saw a Labour-led coalition gain office. Over its next two terms, attempts were made to reintroduce public service functions to the sector. In 2003, TVNZ was restructured as a Crown-Owned Company with a public service Charter. The Charter, abolished by the Key National government in 2008, received a small amount of government subsidy, but TVNZ remains predominantly dependent on commercial revenue and is obliged to continue paying dividends to the Crown. It can apply to NZ On Air (funded directly from the Government since 2000) for support in local content initiatives, such as drama and comedy, and funding of programming for minority groups such as gay, Christian and rural New Zealanders. The funding of
Māori programming has since passed to
Te Māngai Pāho, the Māori broadcasting commission. In 2004, the
Māori Television Service was established to promote Māori language and culture. MTS is funded partly through direct government funding and partly through commercial advertising, but is eligible for contestable programming funds from Te Mangai Paho. In 2006, the Government announced the introduction of two new non-commercial digital television services operated by TVNZ, offering drama, arts, documentary and children's programming called
TVNZ 6 and
TVNZ 7. However, after a change of government, funding for the two channels was not renewed. In 2011, the children's channel,
TVNZ 6, was replaced by the commercial youth channel
TVNZ U, leaving New Zealand with no free to air children's television.
TVNZ Kidzone 24 was subsequently established, but was only available behind a Sky TV pay wall before it ceased broadcasting in 2016. TVNZ 7 ceased broadcasting on 30 June 2012, with a number of its programs being picked up by other channels. In response, public broadcasting advocates announced plans to form a new lobby group, now known as Better Public Media. In 2020,
Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi issued proposals to re-merge TVNZ and RNZ into a unified public media organisation,
Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media, amidst rapidly changing conditions in the media market.{{cite news|url=https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/government-announces-business-case-study-evaluate-proposed-merger-tvnz-rnz|title=Government announces business case study to evaluate proposed merger of TVNZ, RNZ == Freeview ==