A look back at 50 years of TV
It's In The Bag
By Kathryn Stewart
TV, telly, the gogglebox, the small screen - whatever you like to
call it, television has been entertaining New Zealanders for 50
years.
Back in the day, television was black and white with just one channel. Now, there are a host of free-to-air and pay TV channels - many broadcasting 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and available on different platforms such as the internet and mobile phones.
It all began on June 1, 1960 when the government flicked the switch on public television broadcasting. That day, Auckland became the first region to get coverage, initially for two hours, twice a week.
A year after Auckland's regional station came to life, the government began rolling out transmission to the other three main centres, with studios opening in Christchurch in June 1961, Wellington in July 1961, and Dunedin in July 1962.
New Zealand was a relative latecomer to television compared with Britain, which first introduced television to its viewers in 1936. The United States started broadcasting in 1939, and across the Tasman television went to air in 1956.
By the time the New Zealand government finally decided to go ahead with public broadcasting, it did not take long for television fever to set in.
In 1964, the number of television sets produced jumped 1775% from 8,000 in 1960 to 150,000, and for a time, New Zealand had the highest number of TV set makers per head of population.
Demand continued despite the cost of television sets. In 1966, when televisions were first included in national inflation statistics, the average cost of a 23-inch TV set was 131 pounds - around $4,400 in today's terms.
Such was the popularity of TV that in the early 1960s there were reports that the turn-out to evening church and weeknight sports clubs had declined, and many neighbourhood cinemas shut up shop, unable to compete.
New Zealand took its television broadcasting to the next level in 1969 when it decided to network. Until then, television stations had aired their own regional programmes and played outside content as it was transported from one station to the next.
It was significant news events like the Wahine Disaster in 1968 and the July 1969 moon landing that convinced the government that networked news was needed. By the time the 1969 election came around in November, people up and down the country could watch the same thing without delay.
In 1973, New Zealand television passed another milestone with the introduction of colour - just in time for viewers to enjoy Princess Anne's wedding that year and the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch early in 1974.
However, it was another two years before the much anticipated second channel, TV2, went to air. And, it was 20 years before a third channel, the fully commercial TV3, launched in 1989.
In May 2007, free-to-air television stepped into the digital era via the Freeview platform, bringing with it better picture quality and more channels. Analogue transmission, which has beamed television around New Zealand since 1960, will be switched off sometime between 2012 and 2015.
TV - a new stage for home grown talent
During the first decade of public television broadcasting, New Zealand's first classic emerged - Country Calendar. The series, which each week takes a look at the lives of rural New Zealanders, began in 1966 and is still going today, making it New Zealand's longest running show.
Classic characters also emerged on screen like the fictional Kiwi bloke in gumboots, Fred Dagg (satirist John Clarke), in the 1970s. In the first half of the 1980s other local comedians were popularised through television, such as David McPhail and Jon Gadsby in their comedy sketch show McPhail and Gadsby, and Billy T James in his self-titled show.
Later in the 1980s, local drama started to show its teeth with programmes like Gloss - the glamour soap with shoulder pads based on a wealthy family in the fashion magazine business.
Drama was, and still is, cheaper to buy overseas, though the soap Shortland Street, which is still being made 18 years after it first aired in May 1992, is proof that local drama can survive.
Demand for local programmes remains strong. According to AGB Nielson, 15 of the top 20 shows last year, watched by people five years and older, were home grown.
Complemented with overseas programmes, television in New Zealand today is a kaleidoscope of news, current affairs, documentaries, comedy, drama and children's entertainment.
Arguably, television is a world away from its beginnings 50
years ago, and with the increasing choices on how and when we watch
it, television is sure to change dramatically in the next 50.
