Public broadcasting in New Zealand has undergone many changes since radio broadcasts first commenced in the 1920s.

Radio

The first radio station, Radio Dunedin, began broadcasting in 1921, but it was only in 1925 that the Radio Broadcasting Company (RBC) began broadcasts throughout New Zealand. In 1932, its assets were acquired by the government, which established the New Zealand Broadcasting Board (NZBB). This would later be replaced by the National Broadcasting Service (NBS) and the National Commercial Broadcasting Service (NCBS).

In the 1950s, these merged to become the New Zealand Broadcasting Service (NZBS), a government department. In 1962, this gave way to the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC), an independent public body modelled on the BBC in the UK.

Television

Television was first introduced in New Zealand in 1960. The annual television licence fee was NZ£4.

Initially, programming was done on a regional basis, with different services broadcasting from the main cities, AKTV2 in Auckland, being the first, followed by WNTV1 in Wellington and CHTV3 in Christchurch in 1961, and finally DNTV2 in Dunedin in 1962. Today, however, all programming and scheduling is now done in Auckland.

It was not until 1969 that the NZBC's first live network news bulletin was broadcast. In 1973, NZBC TV was networked nationwide, and colour television was introduced, although some of the Commonwealth Games events in Christchurch the following year were shown in black and white.

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 prority. 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.

Although the Broadcasting Authority had favoured the Independent Television 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.)

Reorganisation

The introduction of a second TV channel in 1975, also saw the reorganisation of broadcasting in New Zealand. The NZBC was dissolved in April of that year, with the two television channels, Television One and TV2, run separately from one another, and Radio New Zealand (RNZ) taking over responsibility for radio broadcasting. The NZBC Symphony Orchestra was to be known simply as the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra . TV2 was renamed South Pacific Television in 1976.

In 1978, the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand (BCNZ) was established, and in 1980, TV One and South Pacific (known once again as TV2) were merged into a single organisation, Television New Zealand (TVNZ).

In 1988, the BCNZ was dissolved with TVNZ and RNZ becoming separate 'State-Owned Enterprises' (SOEs). A new government agency, called the Broadcasting Commission or New Zealand on Air (NZOA), took over responsibility for the television licence fee, now called the broadcasting fee.

Commercialisation

Although RNZ's services continued to be funded by the broadcasting fee, TVNZ now increasingly depended on advertising, and ratings battles with the new television station TV3. Rather than being used to fund TVNZ, the broadcasting fee was used for public service broadcasting for other TV services.

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 the broadcasting fee was finally abolished in 1999.

The New Zealand First party, briefly in coalition government between 1996 and 1999, has proposed the re-establishment of a single public service broadcaster, to be called New Zealand Broadcasting (NZB).

External links

• New Zealand on Air
• Friends of Public Broadcasting