There was quite a good documentary Trackside did for its 20th anniversary around its history. Not sure if it’s online anywhere.
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Interesting stuff that Patrick wrote about the history of trackside which used to be a free to air channel which got removed in some point in the 2010s
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31 July 2011, I believe.
For the record, SKY’s other UHF channels ceased 10 March 2010.
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Great quality footage of the TV4 launch thanks to our good friend @anon36025973.
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Funny, I have the audio of that on a cassette somewhere!
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As I’ve mentioned here previously, Sky had just three channels: the Sky Sport channel (24 hours of national and international sport), the Sky News channel (24 hours of national and international news and information) and the Sky Movie channel (14 hours of uninterrupted movies and entertainment). All three channels were transmitted on scrambled UHF frequencies.
In 1992 Sky was available in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellington and Christchurch. If you lived in those areas, “Sky Start” would cost you $120.
That’s $60 for a fully refundable deluxe decoder, $50 for standard installation and $10 for your first month’s viewing on Sky’s three channels, plus your first issue of Sky’s magazine, Skywatch.
Skywatch was first published in April 1992 and had entertained subscribers with exciting features on Hollywood movies, actors, top sports stars and events. The monthly magazine was packed with comprehensive listings, a movie guide, sports diary, the latest news from Sky and much more. Plus a range of competitions with fantastic prizes added even more value.
After 28 years of publication and owing to Covid-19, Skywatch moved to digital only in April last year and was discontinued in August that same year.
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One would assume that you would have had to have a strong, reliable signal otherwise the decoder would not have been able to unscramble the picture.
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@Mechsta Sky’s UHF signal might not be available in all areas. An amplifier might be required in weak signal areas and a one off charge of $50 was payable in that instance.
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From what I know, Sky UHF was only available in the big towns and cities. But even then in those areas the signal could well be poor and if you’re in a fringe area, it would be interesting to see if the converter box would work at all.
The basic rule of thumb was if you could get Trackside you could get Sky (excluding Nelson/Tasman)
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HALF HOUR NEWS FOR TVNZ
@OnAir @Leotv @nztv @TV4 @theGradyConnell The media commentator, John Drinnan, wrote a short piece for the NZ Herald about TVNZ reducing its 6pm news hour to 30 minutes.
That piece was originally published in the Herald in 2010 and reused with permission.
Television New Zealand is looking at radical solutions to trim $30 million to $40 million from budgets - including halving the 6pm news hour.
It is understood that TVNZ has sounded out TV3 advising: “If you go half an hour, we’d go half an hour too.”
“It would be a question of who blinks first,” said a TVNZ source who would not be named.
The idea of halving the news hour - creating a 30-minute bulletin followed by Close Up or Campbell Live - has been considered plenty of times.
Publicly TVNZ and TV3 are not talking. But the TVNZ source said: “It makes a lot more sense now than it did in the past.”
TVNZ revenue was down 16.6 per cent for the six months to December 31.
But costs are still at 2010 levels, and it is predicting a loss in the year to June 30.
MediaWorks is also facing upheavals. Changes are to come and there is debate about the value of extended bulletins.
Some viewers would see the halving of the bulletin as a terrible step backward.
New Zealanders love watching the news and a commercial half-hour might mean only 17 minutes of news.
But there is not much happening in New Zealand and commercial news is not prepared to deal with detail.
People cannot commit an hour of their time to watch overblown fluff stories and countless live cross-overs.
How much would it save? In theory it would mean fewer staff and reporters.
“If you halve the news hour it might reduce the budgets by 20 or 25 per cent, but not by half,” said a TVNZ source.
A TVNZ news veteran pointed out that there was plenty of fluff in the old days on the half-hour One News.
If you cut half an hour of high-rating content from prime time, you have to find a replacement. And that is easier said than done.
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I know TV3 went briefly to half an hour on Sundays (or was it Sat/Sun) for a time in the Mark Weldon-era before going back. I’m not sure either will go back now…the 6pm news is one of the few guaranteed raters.
Oh that’s right, 3rd Degree… rebranded to 3D moved to Sunday 6.30pm for a month or so, then Mondays 9.30, then axed not long later.
Couldn’t say media was dull in Weldon times that’s for sure 
@OnAir Let’s go back to January 1991 when TV3 (now Three) extended its main evening news bulletin, 3 National News, to a full one-hour format starting at 6pm. This occurred during the Gulf War but, once the war was over, the network continued to screen a one-hour bulletin.
The one-hour edition of 3 National News was used as a selling point over TVNZ’s One Network News (now 1 NEWS) which was still a half hour bulletin, followed by Holmes at 6.30pm. TVNZ did not extend its 6pm news to an hour until February 1995.
On weekends and during the Christmas and New Year holiday period, 3 National News was usually reduced to a half hour bulletin.
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TVNZ did not become 1 hour weekend news bulletin till 1999
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Technically, the Sunday bulletin is still split. Half an hour of news, then an extended sports section (which is usually about 20 minutes or so), and then the weather.
I don’t remember when it was 3rd Degree but I do remember when it was simply 3D. Didn’t that era of the show have a sort of boxy logo that looked like a periodic table element?
Kia ora,
I have been looking a bit to the history of Sky Network Television, and suddenly stumbled upon the video @anon36025973 uploaded about a channel called Orange (now Sky 5), available right here in this thread, and whose presentation was designed by Martin Lambie-Nairn (may he R.I.P.), and even shows in a reel his company made in 1996ish (and also publicly available on YT).
As a foreigner, I’m trying to look for answers for these questions: why Sky did launch a general entertainment channel to rivalise One, 2 and 3? And why the Orange brand (which IMHO I find quite jarring for such a channel) was selected to be the channel brand, and why it was dropped in 1997/1998ish in favour of Sky 1? I will look forward to your answers from all of you.
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Similar to most pay TV networks - they needed a general entertainment channel as part of their portfolio to help attract subscribers.
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In 1987 and 1988, TVNZ introduced new seasons of programming as published in the NZ Listener. Click the links below to enlarge, as I took some photos at the Takapuna Library during my visit to Auckland last year.
1987 - first half
1987 - second half
1988 - first half
1988 - second half
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