@damian In November 1992 (or during 1993, at least) Sky Television sold its movie channel (Sky Movies) to HBO Asia. became known as HBO but later reverted to its former name Sky Movies, after HBO Asia re-sold the channel to Sky Television.
Cartoon Network shared the same channel as Orange since 1997 and ran between 6am-4pm with Orange running after 4pm. Prior to 1997, Orange ran from 10am until around 11.30pm with Juice TV screening outside of Orange’s broadcast hours.
Discovery Channel broadcast on a channel already used by Trackside.
The original Juice TV and Trackside services were available free-to-air to anyone who could receive the UHF signal without the need for a Sky decoder. Discovery and Orange were only available to Sky subscribers.
What a Strange Time for New Zealand to have Five Locally Produced Game Shows on the One Schedule: Jeopardy & Sale of the Century on One, Face the Music & Wheel of Fortune on Two and The Price is Right on Three.
When the rugby league came to TVNZ’s Channel 2 (now TVNZ 2) in 1991, the three ‘regular season’ matches were televised on Friday, Sunday and Monday nights in a late night slot (around 10.30pm). While Channel 2 had same-day coverage of a Friday match during the 1991 season, the Saturday and Sunday matches were shown the next day (i.e. Sunday and Monday).
As the 1992 season began, the three matches were broadcast on Channel 2 the same day (i.e. Friday, Saturday and Sunday). Commentary for the Friday and Sunday matches (in full) was provided by Graham Lowe and Graeme Hughes, and the Saturday match was shown in a one-hour ‘highlights package’ format.
For the first half of the 1992 season, the Sunday matches were broadcast at 6.30pm and ran for two hours as a lead-in to the Sunday night movie. By mid-May 1992, it moved to 6pm to allow MacGyver to go to air with brand new episodes at 7.30pm.
During the 1991 NSWRL season, TVNZ’s Channel 2 (now TVNZ 2) screened delayed coverage of the Saturday matches on Sunday nights, while Sunday’s were shown on Monday nights. I replied to @TV4 regarding the rugby league coverage on Channel 2 - Aussie League on 2.
TV One
6.45am Teletext in Vision
7.00 Gran
7.05 The Adventures of Snelgrove Snail
7.15 Superbook
7.40 Tube Mice
7.45 Tumbledown Farm
7.55 Dastardly & Muttley (Rpt)
8.15 Top Cat (Rpt)
8.40 The Muppet Show Command Performances (Rpt)
9.05 Scientific Eye
9.25 Praise Be
9.55 Aerobics Oz Style (Rpt)
10.20 The Taste of Health (Rpt) (Final)
10.45 Life on Earth (Rpt)
11.40 Angels
12.05pm Smithsonian World
1.00 News Review
1.25 Six Women Writers
1.55 Sunday Grandstand. Includes rugby league, rugby, basketball and tennis
6.00 A Dog’s Show
6.30 Network News and Sport
7.00 Frontline
7.45 Mastermind
8.15 Colin’s Sandwich
8.55 Mobil Masterpiece Theatre: A Penny for Your Dreams
10.55 Kaleidoscope
11.25 Network News
11.35 Private Schulz (Rpt)
12.30am Cool It
12.55 Wimbledon 1989. Men’s singles final, live (subject to weather conditions)
3.30 Closedown
Network Two
10.45am Teletext in Vision
11.00 Waka Huia
Noon Opus
1.00 USA Today
1.25 Kate & Allie
1.50 A Country Practice
2.50 Mother and Son (Rpt)
3.20 Upstairs, Downstairs
4.20 Last of the Summer Wine
4.55 The Planets
5.30 Life in the Fridge Exists
6.00 Strangers
6.30 A Different World
7.00 Your Choice
7.15 Don’t Tell Me
7.45 Mini-Series: The Shadow Trader (Part 1)
9.20 Duet
9.50 CV
12.00am Closedown
On the evening of Sunday 9 July 1989 at 7.45pm, TVNZ’s Network Two (now TVNZ 2) screened the first of a two-part “money and greed” mystery thriller, The Shadow Trader. Produced in-house by the TVNZ drama department, The Shadow Trader was set in a Rogernomics-era ‘New Auckland’ of property deals and horse racing.
Working class lass Tammy Costello (played by Annie Whittle) and art consultant Joanna McCarthy (played by Miranda Harcourt, better known as Gemma Stace/Redfern from Gloss) were an unlikely duo who inherited a racehorse and a greasy spoon cafe (instant coffee rather than cappuccino). British import James Faulkner played the role of David Constance, a shady developer whose scheme was blocked by the duo.
Part two screened on the evening of Tuesday 11 July 1989 at 8.30pm on Two. More later.
TV One
10.00am Teletext in Vision
10.15 50 Forward
10.45 Kilroy (PGR)
11.30 New Zealand Today
12.30pm ABC World News
1.00 Film on One: The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) (Rpt, AO)
3.15 Remington Steele (Rpt, PGR)
4.15 I Love Lucy (B&W) (Rpt, G)
4.45 Take the High Road (G)
5.15 Te Karere
5.30 Jeopardy!
6.00 One Network News
6.30 Holmes
7.00 Sale of the Century
7.30 A Country Practice (G)
8.30 Crimewatch
9.30 Keeping Up Appearances (AO)
10.00 Birds of a Feather (PGR)
10.30 Tonight
11.00 Crimewatch Update
11.10 Closedown
Channel 2
6.20am Three Little Ghosts (G)
6.50 Te Karere (Rpt)
7.00 ITN World News
7.25 Heathcliff (G)
8.00 ITN World News (Rpt)
8.30 Zoo Olympics (G)
8.35 Sesame Street
9.35 Play School (Rpt, G)
10.05 Aerobics Oz Style (G)
10.30 Neighbours (Rpt, G)
11.00 Santa Barbara (G)
Noon The Young and the Restless
1.00 Days of Our Lives (PGR)
2.00 Perfect Strangers (Rpt, G)
2.30 Jase TV 2.33 Play School (Rpt, G) 3.00 Just So Stories (G) 3.10 Fiddley Foodle Bird (Rpt, G) 3.25 Roger Ramjet (Rpt, G)
3.30 The Son of a Gunn Show
4.00 Tiny Toon Adventures (Rpt, G)
4.30 Captain Planet and the Planeteers (Rpt, G)
5.00 The Bugs Bunny Show
5.30 Face the Music
6.00 Neighbours (G)
6.30 Wheel of Fortune
7.00 Shortland Street (PGR)
7.30 The Simpsons (Rpt, G)
8.00 Cheers (G)
8.30 The Billy T James Collection (Final)
9.00 Fawlty Towers (Rpt, PGR)
9.40 Rescue 911
10.40 Late Night Studs (PGR)
11.15 Lightning Force (AO)
11.45 Closedown
TV3
Noon The Oprah Winfrey Show (PGR)
1.00 Parent Time (G)
1.05 Donahue (PGR)
2.00 The Bold and the Beautiful (PGR)
2.30 You and Me (G)
3.00 3PM 3.10 Widget 3.45 DuckTales (Rpt, G) 4.25 TaleSpin (G)
5.00 Get Smart (Rpt, G)
5.30 The Addams Family (B&W) (Rpt, G)
6.00 3 National News
7.00 Give Us a Clue
7.30 Home Improvement (PGR)
8.00 Issues
8.30 3 Special: Benny Hill in New York (AO)
9.30 WIOU (AO)
10.30 Nightline
11.00 Channel 4 Showcase: Behaving Badly (PGR)
12.00am Closedown
Due to the power crisis, there was a possibility that television transmission would end between 11pm and midnight (approx).
Power crisis. Sounds similar to what Victoria used to go through in the 1960’s through to the 1980’s. TV transmissions were affected because of it. On the worst days, TV was limited to just 2 hours a day between 6pm and 8pm.
During early 1998, the United Christian Broadcasters purchased 34 TV licences of UHF spectrum from TVNZ that had been used for the defunct Horizon Pacific Television (HPTV) and MTV channels respectively.
Then during June 1998, Prime Television Limited (now Prime Media Group Limited) in Australia purchased the unused 34 TV licences from United Christian Broadcasters for approximately A$3.6 million. The licences covered all major cities and towns, mainly on UHF, except for the Gisborne area, which was served via a VHF signal. On the evening of Sunday 30 August 1998, Prime Television New Zealand began broadcasting at 6.30pm with Two Fat Ladies.
Here’s the rundown for Prime’s first night on air:
6.30 Two Fat Ladies
7.00 Perry & Croft: The Sitcoms
8.05 It Ain’t Half Hot Mum
8.40 Movie: The Fix (1997)
10.25 The Burger and the King
12.00am Closedown
Prime has been fully owned and operated by Sky Network Television since 2006.
I’m not sure that first statement is entirely right, Paddy; Horizon Pacific never broadcast on all those 34 frequencies, HPTV & MTV had confined themselves just to the main centres. I’m not even sure TVNZ owned the other frequencies; the RSM index shows nothing to back this up.
I think from memory the Auckland frequency was going to be used for BCL (before they became Kordia) to run some digital TV trials on, but I’m not sure if that actually happened, or if they ended up running something else on it.
I’m getting way off topic of course… I remember Two Fat Ladies, but nothing else that first night (apart from the “this is where we live” ear-worm).
