TVNZ 1
TVNZ 1 is the first national television channel owned and operated by the state-owned broadcaster Television New Zealand. It is the oldest television broadcaster in New Zealand, starting out from 1960 as independent channels in the four main centres of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, networking in 1969 to become NZBC TV. The network was renamed Television One in 1975 upon the break-up of the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, and became a part of TVNZ in 1980 when Television One and South Pacific Television merged. The channel assumed its current name in October 2016.
TVNZ 1 is both a public broadcaster and a commercial broadcaster. Central to TVNZ 1 is news and current affairs, which is produced under the banner 1News. Also, it broadcasts sports programming under the banner 1 Sport. Other programming targets the 25 to 54 demographic, and consists of mainly drama, general entertainment and documentaries, both locally and internationally produced.
History
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, 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. Television advertisements began in April 1961 and were initially allowed only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Relay stations gradually expanded the four channels into regional New Zealand. Television coverage was expanded to Waikato, Tauranga, Manawatu and Wairarapa in 1963, to Hawke's Bay, South Otago and Southland in 1964, to South Canterbury in 1965 and to Whangarei and Taranaki in 1966. In addition, a number of televiewers' societies were established to set up and operate their own translators. By 1965, 300,000 television licences had been issued, and television was broadcasting seven nights a week.
Initially, the four television facilities were unlinked, and programming had to be shipped between stations. The sinking of in Wellington Harbour on 10 April 1968 highlighted the lack of a video link. Footage shot in Wellington could not be broadcast in other centres around the country in real-time, and the extra-tropical cyclone which contributed to the disaster grounded air traffic, preventing the film being flown to other centres. Footage was screened in Christchurch and Dunedin via a recording made from the Wellington signal received in Kaikōura, which was then driven to Christchurch to be aired immediately.
By the time of the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969, the two islands were each network-capable via microwave link, but the link over Cook Strait had not been completed, and there was no link between New Zealand and the outside world. Footage of the Moon landing was recorded on video tape at the Australian Broadcasting Commission's ABN-2 in Sydney, then rushed by an RNZAF English Electric Canberra to Wellington and WNTV1. 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.
With the establishment of the Warkworth satellite station in 1971, New Zealand could finally communicate with the rest of the world. The first live broadcast received by satellite was the 1971 Melbourne Cup on 2 November.
For the first 13 years, NZBC TV broadcast solely in black and white. Colour television, using the Phase alternating line 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 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 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. The regional programmes broadcast from the four main TVNZ studios in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
Children's news programme Video Dispatch started in 1980 with Dick Weir as the presenter. 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 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
TV One has used numerous logos throughout its history. Until 2016, all displayed "one" as a word, rather than as a number. The original 1975 logo featured large rounded lettering, sometimes with the top half of the "o" in the lowercase "one" divided into rainbow colours. This was replaced after the formation of Television New Zealand in 1980, with uppercase inline lettering.The Friz Quadrata typeface and a more classical look debuted in 1987, contrasting Channel 2's more contemporary appearance. The more familiar sans serif italic lettering, with mixed case lettering, was launched during the 1996 Olympics, variations of this logo were used up to 2013 with the colours changing every few years or the logo behind a coloured background. In 2007, TV One rebranded, adopting orange as its new on-air colour, at the cost of NZ$300,000, with the aim of making the channel more relevant to local audiences. In 2013 the logo was changed, continuing to use the sans serif lettering but no longer in italics.
In October 2016, TV One was rebranded as TVNZ 1 with the logo changed to simply the number 1 in bold black with a red scribble pattern around the number, while sister channel TV2 renamed TVNZ 2, with a similar purple scribble pattern around the number.