Maori TV bought it back a few years ago too.
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That was in 2009, where Pio Terei and Stacey Morrison took over.
@TV4 I wish Jason Reeves (from Coast) and Matilda Green (winner of “The Bachelor New Zealand 2015”) would host the all new version of “It’s in the Bag” with a ‘classic’ look.
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@TV4 This is Jeff Safey, who played in a Trans-Tasman tournament in 1995 and defeated his Australian opponent by $1 and won a cruise holiday around New Zealand as his major prize.
That tournament was known as the “1995 Australia v New Zealand Battle of the Brains”, where champions from the Australian and New Zealand versions of Sale of the Century were brought together in a ‘mammoth challenge’. Each champion played for a home viewer, who automatically won cash and got a chance to win a Mitsubishi car.
The final of the “Battle of the Brains” challenge was broadcast, in fact, on the evening of Monday 3 April 1995 on TV3 (now Three). Sale of the Century was brought back by 3 in September 1994 but had been cancelled in April 1995 (just before Easter) due to poor ratings and strong competition from Holmes on TV One (now TVNZ 1) and Shortland Street on TV2 (now TVNZ 2). Its final episode was broadcast on Thursday 13 April 1995.
When Sale of the Century ended, 3 was asking viewers to submit, in writing, what comedy show (or sitcom) they would like to see play in the 7pm slot, according to the NZ Listener. They chose Hogan’s Heroes, a US sitcom set in a Nazi German prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during World War II; it ran for 168 episodes over six years, from 1965 to 1970.
Speaking of Jeff on New Zealand’s Sale of the Century, he initially finished with a cumulative score of $639 on his sixth and final night in 1992; this was immediately corrected to $649 following a review of an answer previously ruled incorrect, meaning he was $1 short of winning the Lot ($650). A ‘shattered’ Jeff decided to take the car. He also played on the Australian Temptation revival and won over AU$380,000 in cash and prizes after declining to play for double his Cash Jackpot on his final night.
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Didn’t that happed before it got cancelled?
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A rare find of Kiwi TV History, I decided to look at some old WTFDA VHF-UHF Digest issues from the late 1970s that are available online. On one page it listed the TV Frequencies for NZCh1 (VHF) and what transmitters were used at the time. Anyway, here is a variant of the late 70s South Pacific Television (now TVNZ 2) symbol featuring the infamous Goodnight Kiwi that I found.
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Which issue was it in?
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September 1979 issue I think.
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Some letterheads from NZBC/BCNZ, the broadcasting overlords… and an official momo from TVNZ 1986 (Sourced from Archives NZ)
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@TV4 @Leotv @OnAir In 1999 TVNZ launched New Zealand’s first live interactive music programme - “Ground Zero”.
Presented by Francesca Rudkin and Graeme Hill, Ground Zero featured a blend of music videos, live performances, comedy, celebrity guests and discussion of youth issues. From my own perspective, it was recorded at an unknown location in Auckland (i.e. let’s say, 24 Normanby Road in Mt Eden where people could come over by 10pm on a Friday night and watch the show going live to air at 10.30pm on TV2 - now TVNZ 2 - as part of the studio audience).
The New Zealand version was produced by Satellite Pictures (now Satellite) in association with Becker Entertainment for TVNZ. In fact, Becker had produced Ground Zero for Network Ten, which ran from 1997-2001.
Although ill-fated, it is remembered as being one of the early television programmes in Australia and, later, New Zealand to feature an internet presence during its early years.
In 2000, the New Zealand version of Ground Zero was replaced by “Space”. It was produced by Satellite for TVNZ with funding from NZ On Air and ran for four years (2000-03).
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Don’t think I’ve seen these posted here, election night videos from TVNZ spanning the 80s-2010s (some are missing, some are incomplete and some are the full shebang.)
Do Co - YouTube Enjoy.
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Wow, so much footage, very nostalgic. Hope they add 2002’s one as well. The sets were quite grand especially Decision 96, I’m quite surprised but then it went downhill with the 99 set.
There’s a comment on one of the videos saying they don’t have 2002 unfortunately.
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That’s a shame, hopefully someone out there will upload.
Yes, that’s the only one I’ve actually settled in to watch properly thus far. Very grand as you point out and Ian Fraser’s presentation is very formal too, with election nights more recently tending to flip between serious and lighter elements (for better or worse - I don’t think the formal presentation would resonate any more)
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It’s quite amusing seeing them boast about having this new technology at the time and how its ground breaking especially when they showed us around the set with dozens of staffers in front of pc monitors. You are right, the formal presentation of 96 wouldn’t resonate this time around but I actually enjoyed Ian’s presentation. I liked the election sets of 05 and 08 when they used the TVNZ Atrium. I really want to see the 2002 Election as that was very grand as well being broadcast live from Avalon in Wellington. Wouldn’t mind also seeing TV3’s election coverage through the years.
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In the early 1990s, radio personality Greg Agnew had hosted “Sky Hollywood Report” on Sky Movies.
Launched in October 1990, “Sky Hollywood Report” was Sky’s weekly roundup of entertainment news and Hollywood gossip from a New Zealand perspective and initially aired on Saturday nights. It moved to seven nights a week for the month of November, and then to Sunday nights from December 1990 until mid-July 1991.
Before moving into television (briefly), Greg was a familiar voice on a number of New Zealand radio stations, including 1ZM, Radio Waikato and Radio Windy. After leaving 1ZM, he headed to Los Angeles to host the drive show on Power 106 when it launched in January 1986, according to @anon36025973.
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I’ve heard stories from one long-time TVNZ staffer of when dozens of journalists/control room staff were flown to Wellington from across the country for the '02 coverage. Much more $$ to spend back in those days.
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Wow that’s very interesting to hear that, what a time to be working in television when the budgets were endless and they had a huge studio not being used for much until election night.
The days when Judy Bailey would be flown via helicopter to a magazine shoot on the Coromandel!
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ACTION TV
On this day (6 November) in 1992, the TAB launched a new free-to-air racing channel known as Action TV. When Action TV began its racing programme was called “Trackside” and broadcast on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.
Nearly 30 years later, there are two racing channels (TAB Trackside 1 & 2) which broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Together, TAB Trackside 1 & 2 provide full coordinated coverage of all greyhound, harness and thoroughbred racing in New Zealand with most racing from Australia and many races from Hong Kong, Singapore and other countries. The two channels provide on-screen tickers and commentary with up-to-the-minute odds, field and dividend information. Between races, they feature on-track interviews, in-studio analysis, live footage of horses warming up for races, replays of previous races and recaps of betting odds.
The article, by Joseph Romanos, was originally published in the NZ Listener and reused with permission.
In a move it hopes will boost race-betting, the TAB has launched a free-to-view racing channel that will broadcast about 22 hours of racing each week in the major metropolitan areas of the North Island, plus Canterbury. Action TV broadcasts start, on the UHF band, this Friday, November 6. The TAB hopes to gain a regular audience of about 50,000 bettors for the channel, which it will operate in conjunction with Avalon Studios and TVNZ.
The TAB has been televising races since 1987, when it set up Intertrack Television to provide trackside coverage at meetings. Two years later, it became the video contractor for all but four of New Zealand’s racetracks. Now it owns eight outside broadcast vans.
With Avalon providing studios and support services, and TVNZ offering studio-to-track links and cross-channel promotion (in addition to showing about 50 feature races a year), Action TV is the latest step in the gradual expansion of televised racing into a multi-million dollar venture.
The value of broadcasting full-on racing was proved conclusively in September, 1991 when Canterbury Television started showing the TAB’s trackside pictures on its Saturday racing show. “Canterbury telephone betting has increased 20 percent in the past year, compared to a 10 percent decrease in Auckland,” says TAB marketing officer Michael Dore.
“For all betting, Canterbury has increased 10 percent, while the rest of the country has dropped six percent. We attribute these figures almost solely to the racing that has been shown on Canterbury Television. Now weh hope to stimulate betting in many other parts of the country with this extended coverage.”
Action TV is a commercial operation, complete with advertisements. As well as the general viewers who tune in, its signal will be taken by 200 pubs and clubs, and 115 TAB agencies. It aims to show not only live races, previews and reviews, but also magazine-style pieces.
Well-known Waikato commentator George Simon, and Karyn Bisdee [now Karyn Fenton-Ellis], a former TVNZ presenter, will team up to front Friday night’s Trackside coverage: a review of midweek racing and a preview of the weekend, plus live harness-race coverage. Simon presents the programmes on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, with Bisdee covering Saturday nights.
The TAB has certainly started its extended cover in a heavy week, with the Auckland Trotting Club meet on Friday, November 6, and the gallops at Ellerslie, Trentham and Riccarton on Saturday. There’s the New Zealand Trotting Cup this Tuesday at Addington, more racing on Wednesday with the 2000 Guineas Day at Riccarton, and Show Day at Addington on Friday (November 13).
There are plans to extend the coverage to overseas racing too, but, as Dore explains, “it has been a major operation to get this far. There have already been preliminary talks concerning Australian racing coverage. That’s definitely our intention. It’s just a case of walking before we run.”
Because Action TV uses the UHF band (ultra-high frequency), not all television sets can receive it. For best reception, Action TV says a UHF aerial should be installed.
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