@OasisFan Hi there - the majority of New Zealand made programmes, from my point of view, converted from master videotapes stored in TVNZ’s vaults (through Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision) to digital files. In some circumstances, most full-length Havoc programmes during its first two years (1997-98) are missing… I just don’t know.
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Maybe worth reaching out to Havoc on insta? I think he’s recently digitized a lot of his old stuff
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Do You know C4 (now The Edge TV which is now closed on 20 March this year) had its own adults only show that features music videos that could not air during the day due to broadcast restrictions?
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@Billie-joe_Crossley Yup. When C4 first started in October 2003, Rated R was an hour-long show devoted to music videos that were deemed unsuitable for broadcast during the day due to their explicit content. It aired Saturday nights at midnight (overnight Sunday) but didn’t last long and was disappeared by the start of 2004.
Correction: Both The Edge TV and Breeze TV ended transmission in December 2022.
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Here are the on-air promo designs used by the newly rebranded Channel 2 (now TVNZ 2) from 1989 to 1991.
Promo design 1 (1989)
Promo design 2 (1989-90)
Promo design 3 (1990-91)
Any comments?
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Whoa, that takes me back!
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Here’s a glimpse of the old TV3 (now Three) test card which was a key feature during closedown.
The words “TONIGHT 8PM” and the time check (on the top right-hand corner of the screen) within the test card indicated that TV3, NZ’s first private television network, officially opened at 8pm on the evening of Sunday 26 November 1989.
Image: Supplied.
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@OnAir More classic NZ TV listings (dating back to 1980-89), from The Press, are now available on the Papers Past website.
In the meantime, here’s a classic newspaper advertisement promoting the arrival of Television New Zealand (TVNZ) on Saturday 16 February 1980 as TVNZ itself replaced both TV One and South Pacific Television (SPTV) - now TVNZ 1 & 2 respectively.
Courtesy of The Press and the National Library of New Zealand, digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.
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McPhail and Gadsby rips off Goodnight Kiwi at 18:40
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If anything this was the best part of McPhail & Gadsby. RIP to the both of them.
Edit: After seeing this I thought it was the Parliament bit. But this is good too.
@Damo Check out some classic clips from TVNZ’s Christchurch regional news programme, The Mainland Touch (supplied by Fred Gear, who had worked at TVNZ Christchurch for many years as a vision controller and technical producer).
Presented initially by Rodney Bryant and Bob Sutton, The Mainland Touch provided audiences in the Canterbury region with a lively mix of the day’s news, current affairs and features, with an added emphasis on entertainment, in a magazine-style format.
Included in the video are:
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Funny moments from The Mainland Touch’s second year on air, followed by Christmas carols and production staff credits (24 December 1981)
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Royal Wedding countdown (29 July 1981)
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Rodney Bryant’s final Mainland Touch (19 April 1984)
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Nice, bro.
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I’ve just discovered that the NETWORK TWO ident from 1987 to 1989 was actually made using the “SIP III” package from Cascom’s Select Effects library.
Here’s a demo for the graphics package from the VHS catalog (starts in 1:00:10 and ends in 1:16:30).
Stick around for 1:01:48 for the NETWORK TWO ident being showcased in said demo.
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New news format for TVNZ
In July 1985 TVNZ announced that it would move its main evening news from 6.30pm to 6pm from February 1986, but it didn’t happen until July 1988.
Allan Martin, TVNZ’s director-general at the time, said the decision to move the news from 6.30pm had been under consideration. Market research had revealed more than a million people watched television at 6pm and this was ‘the major reason’ for the time change.
The hour-long programme would begin at 6pm with the news headlines, followed by a national weather forecast, then the regional programmes. The national and international news of the day would follow at its usual time of 6.30pm.
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Did they ever say why it never happened?
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The reason why it never happened was the moving of TVNZ’s regional news programmes to an earlier timeslot during the news hour. These would be preceded by a first look at the day’s headlines and the national weather forecast.
Until TVNZ moved its news hour from 6.30pm to 6pm in July 1988, the national and international news would go first and run for approximately 40 minutes with the regional news to follow. The weather forecast would conclude the news hour.
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@NuStraya @OnAir Here’s a glimpse of the old One Network News set - circa January 1990.
By mid-November 1989, just under two weeks before the grand opening of TV3 (now Three), TVNZ rebranded the Network News as One Network News with a fresh new look, a new studio set and a short-lived “One Weather Centre” section of the set.
The exact broadcast date for the One Network News bulletin (6pm), as shown in the images above, was Saturday 13 January 1990 where the late Angela D’Audney read the news with Phil Gifford as sports anchor and Louise Pagonis as weather presenter.
All images courtesy of TVNZ and YouTube channel KIWI AS TV; no copyright infringement intended.
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The launch of Prime Television New Zealand, as recorded on the 30th of August 1998.
from TheRadioVault on YouTube.
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From the same channel as @LiamP’s last post - here’s TV3’s genesis, starting with a Special Presentation titles that was also used on Seven, NBC, BSkyB-era The Movie Channel, etc:
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The overall presentation had that upscale, American-style NBC feeling with these titles designed by Pacific Data Images (during the broadcast era, the DreamWorks deal and the pivot to film production was still a long way behind). Even the launch campaign (Come Home to the Feeling, Only on 3) was derivative of the NBC campaign at the time (Come Home to the Best, Only on NBC), which was also being used by Seven (Only the Best on 7).
The question is, did this relate to NBC having a small stake in the then-nascent network? Anyway’s the excellent, bold, American graphics looked very good compared to TV One’s and Channel 2’s respective efforts, as seen from these videos from our very own @PaddyTePou.
Here’s a snippet of the first day of TV3’s schedule. Sunday’s launch was treated as a “grand preview”, with normal programming not beginning until Monday. Most of the schedule was fully of American imports (including classic TV series), with only five local shows, the Early Bird Show, a local version of Perfect Match and local version of Nine’s ACA, with Genevieve Westcott introducing NZ-specific segments, and one of 60 Minutes, repurposing American and Aussie reports with some local stories.
In relation to this, I’m reposting this excerpt of 3 National News’ first broadcast. Phillip Sherry anchors with Greg Clark on sports and Belinda Todd as weather and features presenter. The theme music, performed by the RNZ Auckland Symphony, was written specially by Wellington composer Rob Winch, and was used until the programme was relaunched as 3 News in 1998. The show was 30-minute long at the time, and aired opposite Holmes on One.
And here’s Sherry, Clark and Todd introducing 3 National News during the “Grand Preview”.
Soon, TV3 ran into problems due to the effects of the stock market crash of 1987. As a result, Westpac took over a large shareholder, becoming its creditor, and continued to broadcast. In late 1991, the Aspers began taking control of TV3, saving it from collapse. The rest is other thing.
In a report for Nightline (which had been introduced earlier in 1990, and was based directly on the ABC version of the show), Belinda Todd was poking fun of the situation of the broadcaster at the time:
Here’s an interview done with Mark Jennings on the difficulties of putting on-air TV3, including the financial and technical challenges of the moment. Jennings would become 3 News director, and currently is co-editor of digital news website Newsroom.
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