1960–1975: NZBC TV At 7:30pm on 1 June 1960, New Zealand's first television channel,
AKTV2, started broadcasting in
Auckland from the NZBC building at 74
Shortland Street, previously used to broadcast public radio station 1YA and now home to
The University of Auckland's
Gus Fisher Gallery. Owned and operated by the New Zealand Broadcasting Service (NZBS, which became the
New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation in 1962), it initially broadcast for two hours a day, two days a week.
Christchurch's
CHTV3 followed in June 1961,
Wellington's
WNTV1 a month later, and Dunedin's
DNTV2 on 31 July 1962.
Television licences were introduced in August 1960, initially costing
NZ£4 (equal to
NZ$171 in December 2013).
Television advertisements began in April 1961 and were initially allowed only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. By 1965, 300,000 television licences had been issued, and television was broadcasting seven nights a week. To forward this to the South Island, the NZBC positioned one of its first
outside broadcasting vans to beam the footage to a receiving dish across Cook Strait, from which it was forwarded through the recently commissioned South Island network. The link was completed later that year, the first
NZBC Network News transmitted on 3 November, read by newsreader
Dougal Stevenson. For the first 13 years, NZBC TV broadcast solely in black and white.
Colour television, using the
Phase alternating line (PAL) system, was introduced at 7:45pm on 31 October 1973. The first programme broadcast in colour was the American reality show,
Thrill Seekers. A major impetus for the move to colour was Christchurch hosting the
1974 British Commonwealth Games; however, due to limited colour facilities, only four of the ten sports (swimming, diving, athletics and boxing) could be broadcast in colour. Most programming transitioned to colour over the following 18 months. Due to the episode lag behind the UK,
Coronation Street did not switch to colour until 17 October 1974 when episode 924 (the first episode of
Coronation Street filmed in colour) was broadcast. The Network News continued to broadcast in black-and-white until 31 March 1975; this was to avoid refitting the existing Wellington studio with colour equipment ahead of the imminent move to the new
Avalon Television Centre in Lower Hutt.
1975–1980: Television One On 1 April 1975, the NZBC was split into 3 separate state owned corporations: Television One,
TV2 and
Radio New Zealand. The existing NZBC television service became Television One, and was based in Avalon Television Centre which opened that day. Television One used the WNTV1 and DNTV2 studios and the existing channel frequencies, while AKTV2's Shortland Street studios and CHTV3 studios and new channel frequencies were used for the new TV2, which commenced later that year. Television One commenced transmission on Tuesday 1 April 1975 at 2 pm with a five-minute news bulletin read by
Bill McCarthy, followed by the British drama series ''
Harriet's Back in Town''. Its two-hour opening special was broadcast live to air at 7pm that evening and featured a preview of the programmes, plans and personalities for the new service. On Saturday 17 July 1976, after snow and gale-force winds cut mains power to the Blue Duck microwave station near
Kaikōura, the station's diesel generator failed and left it running on batteries. The batteries eventually discharged by 7pm that evening, severing the Television One network feed south into Canterbury, Otago and Southland. Technicians couldn't reach the station to repair the diesel generator and restore the network until late on Sunday morning, meaning most of the South Island missed the live opening ceremony of the
1976 Summer Olympics.
1980–present: TVNZ In 1980, the two television channels merged to form
Television New Zealand, with the purpose of finally providing a dividend to the Government. The merger was promised to provide 'complementary programming' for both channels. The channel was renamed as "Television One" until early 1995, when it was announced on-air as just "TV One". Regional news programming was reintroduced from 31 March 1980 screening at 7.30pm for half an hour. It aired twice a week in the afternoon. The initial editor was Chris Mitson, later replaced in 1982 by Chris Shellock and David Shellock. Mitson came up with the programme's name while he was at a pub. In 1982, the regional programmes were incorporated into the network news bulletin with
7.30 South rebranded as
The South Tonight. Each region would break out from the network news for a 20-minute regional programme before returning to the network news for the weather. In 1989 the regional programmes were transferred to Network Two in the new timeslot of 5.45pm, and
Top Half and
Today Tonight were axed later that year. In 1990,
The Mainland Touch and
The South Tonight were transferred back to Television One and screened immediately after the Māori news programme
Te Karere (live at 5.20pm in the North Island, delayed at 5.35pm in the South Island) and before the network news. Both programmes were axed altogether at the end of 1990. The channel started 24-hour broadcasts on 19 March 1995, beginning to relay
BBC World overnight. TV One was repositioned in 1997, increasing the amount of New Zealand programmes, news and current affairs programming and sports. TVNZ also introduced
Breakfast as part of the plan. In August 2008, TV One, along with TV2, moved to
720p high-definition for the start of the
2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Both channels were originally only available in high-definition on the Freeview HD platform, before commencing high-definition broadcasts on the Sky platform on 1 June 2009 now moved to 1080i in August 2010. On 28 November 2025, at 7'o'clock New Zealand Daylight Time, Simon Dallow officially retired after 30 years of being a journalist. In October 2016, the channel was renamed TVNZ 1. ==Branding==