Television New Zealand
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Television New Zealand (TVNZ) is the main broadcaster of television in New Zealand.
History
TVNZ was established in 1980, through the merger of Television One and TV2 (formerly South Pacific Television). In 1980, the 1989 Broadcasting Act meant that Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand (BCNZ) had to be split into Radio New Zealand and Television New Zealand, respectively.At present, approximately 90% of TVNZ's revenue is from commercial activity (such as advertising and merchandising). The remainder of its funding comes from government funding agencies.
The Labour-led governments since 1999 have pursued a programme of public broadcasting reforms. New Zealand’s wide-ranging adoption of neoliberal policies in the mid-1980s and 1990s had large sections of the state sector privatised. As a state owned enterprise, TVNZ enjoyed enormous commercial success (sustaining two thirds of the overall audience share) and paid the Treasury substantial dividends (over $250 million between 1989 and 1999). However, the commercial success had been achieved through an unabashed pursuit of ratings through populist and tabloid content, and prior to the 1999 election the National-led government was evidently positioning TVNZ for privatisation Labour-led administrations since 1999 explicitly recognised the market failures of a wholly commercial broadcasting sector (e.g. saturation-level advertising, low levels of local content, heavy reliance on cheap imports and a disregard for quality genres and in-depth news and current affairs) and re-emphasised television’s cultural and democratic functions in their policy thinking.
The government’s highest profile broadcasting reform to date was the restructuring of TVNZ as a Crown Entity in 2003. This introduced a dual remit whereby the broadcaster had to maintain its commercial performance (continuing dividend payments to the Crown) while simultaneously implementing a new public service Charter.
The TVNZ Charter would require the negotiation and reconciliation of potentially contradictory commercial and public service imperatives. The final version of the TVNZ Charter included a range of public service objectives and expectations.
It was clear, however, that the dual remit precluded any transformation of TVNZ into the New Zealand version of the BBC. Indeed, TVNZ’s efforts to balance its pursuit of commercial performance and Charter objectives were soon being criticised. Despite some investment in local content, including new documentaries and discussion programmes, the content on TV One and TV2 remained similar to the pre-charter schedules, with a continuing high proportion of light entertainment and reality-TV shows.
One reason for this is that TVNZ's dual remit requires it to continue paying dividends to the Crown, and although TVNZ now receives a modest subsidy towards implementing the Charter, the former has thus far exceeded the latter. The government has proposed a Programme of Action for broadcasting which would review the funding system.
TVNZ also claims they are New Zealands public broadcaster however show very little evidence of this & are always in competiton with rival tv stations. They show they are a full commerical broadcaster & the government could not care less about this. There website also points out about 90% of there funding comes from advertising.
There is much debate on the future of TVNZ, which focuses on the nature of public service broadcasting and its commercial role. An example was in a memo called A More Public Broadcaster [link] written by outgoing Chief Executive Ian Fraser to the board of TVNZ in October 2005, was obtained and released by Green MP Sue Kedgley. The memo outlined three options
These were:
- TV One as a fully non-commercial network charged with delivering Charter values like ABC in Australia, possibly merging with Radio New Zealand
- TV One a semi-commercial broadcaster with no more than six minutes of advertisements an hour like SBS in Australia
- TV One and TV2 remaining unchanged, but two new public service channels being broadcast via digital television. [link]
While the Broadcasting Minister, Steve Maharey ruled out turning TVNZ into an entirely non-commercial broadcaster, on 25 February, he stated that the Labour Government was "pretty much settled" on the introduction of two new free-to-air, non-commercial channels available via digital television. One channel could show high-end international documentaries, re-runs of One News and minority programmes with a high local content, and another, primarily for children, screening serious drama and arts at night. [link]
TVNZ channels
TV ONE
TV ONE is primarily associated with more serious programming nature, with a broad range of programming including One News and One Sport. TV One also complements its own news coverage with carriage of BBC World overnight. The channel screens much of New Zealand's major sporting events such as the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games and America's Cup. TV One formerly screened All Blacks test matches prior to losing free-to-air rights to TV3 after being out-bid.
TV One features a full entertainment schedule that includes both home grown and international shows (predominantly from the United Kingdom and the United States) that New Zealanders have grown up with such as Coronation Street, through to a range of award winning documentaries, drama and comedy. International shows include Cold Case, Huff and The Office. TV One is also the primary news outlet for TVNZ, broadcasting news from TVNZ's News and Current affairs department and branded as ONE News.
TV2
TV2 focuses on entertainment and delivers a strong line-up of comedies, drama, movies and local programming. TV2 caters primarily to a young and family oriented audience.
TV2 has a wide range and depth of locally-produced content, with shows like Shortland Street, Mitre 10 Dream Home and NZ Idol. TV2 also screens many international shows (predominantly American) including Lost, The Sopranos, ER, Desperate Housewives and Alias.
Other channels
Between 1995 and 1997, TVNZ operated a chain of regional TV stations under the 'Horizon Pacific' brand name and through a subsidiary called Horizon Pacific Television, which also carried BBC World, as well as its own documentary programming. The network consisted of newly formed stations in Hamilton, Wellington and Dunedin and CTV, a station they purchased based in Christchurch. CTV is still broadcasting, but is no longer owned by TVNZ.Horizon Pacific was replaced by a local 'free to air' version of the music video channel MTV, based on MTV's UK service and local programming, although the channel was dropped in 1998. Prior to MTV's demise, TVNZ had bought the channel's competitor, MaxTV. [1] (MTV will launch a dedicated channel for New Zealand on Sky in August 2006.[link], but this will not involve TVNZ.)
New Zealand now has a separate, dedicated Māori TV channel, however TVNZ still produces and airs several Māori and Māori language television programmes.
Internationally, TVNZ has helped provide television services in Pacific Island nations such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands. While TVNZ provides much of the programming, scheduling and continuity are done locally.
Other services
Because of its history TVNZ has inherited and developed its own services in the production and broadcasting services area. These include The New Zealand Television Archive, production facilities, television school.TVNZ also operated the website nzoom.com for a number of years. The site was an internet portal with news purchased from Radio New Zealand its own content and also content produced by its own staff.
TVNZ also operated a satellite services division organising and downlink facilities and across the globe. In 2005 this service was wound down.
Transmission network
New Zealand has nearly identical TV channel allocation frequencies as Australia. Australian TV sets (when taken to NZ) will only be capable of mono sound reproduction. This is due to subtle changes in the type of PAL transmitted on several heavily used VHF TV frequencies. UHF frequencies are not affected as PAL transmitted on UHF is totally standardised in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. TVNZ uses the greatest number of VHF frequencies in New Zealand.New Zealand has a near nationwide implementation of NICAM stereo sound for TV One, TV2 and TV3. New Zealand has provisionally agreed to implement DVB-T HDTV, but there are no indications that TVNZ will be the first broadcaster to transmit in HDTV. TVNZ's broadcast network is operated by Broadcast Communications Limited, a former subsidiary. The company owns and operates the terrestrial transmission network used for broadcast of all major terrestrial television networks in New Zealand, including TV3 and Prime Television, TVNZ's major competitors, along with other voice and data telecommunications services.
Along with TV3 both of TVNZ's current television networks TV1 and TV2 are fed as distinct feeds to viewers based on defined regions though this is only for the purpose of targeted regional advertising as the company no longer operates regional news programming.
Started as distinct stations in the major metropolitan centres networked services were first introduced in 1969 to broadcast a tape of the moon landing flown specially from Australia simultaneously across all stations.
Both TV One and TV2 are also available "in the clear" over DVB-S on Optus B1. A SKY set-top box is not required, any satellite set-top box or tuner will work.''
TVNZ's functions are subject to lifeline utility requirements under NZ civil defence legislation. In practice, this status as a lifeline utility requires TVNZ to be able to function at least to a reduced level after an emergency, and to provide advice to civil defence authorities when requested.
Competitors
TVNZ's major competitors in the television market are CanWest Mediaworks New Zealand's TV3 and SKY's Prime Television.New Zealand shows
See also
References
- [Chief outlines 'major problem at TVNZ] The New Zealand Herald, December 13 2005,retrieved Jan. 3 2006.
- TVNZ Annual Report for 2005 [link] Retrieved Jan. 3 2006
- TVNZ Charter 2003 [link] Retrieved Jan. 4 2006
- TVNZ Corporate Brochure 2005 [link] Retrieved Jan. 3 2006
External links
- [TVNZ]
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