TVNZ 7
New Zealand television channel / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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TVNZ 7 was a commercial-free New Zealand 24-hour news and information channel on Freeview digital television platform and on Sky Television from 1 July 2009. It was produced by Television New Zealand, which received Government funding to launch two additional channels.[2] The channel went to air just after 10 am on 25 March 2008 with a looped preview reel. The channel was officially launched at noon on 30 March 2008 with a special "kingmaker" political debate held within the Parliament building and featuring most of the elected minor party leaders. The channel went off air at midnight on 30 June 2012 to the Goodnight Kiwi.
Country | New Zealand |
---|---|
Broadcast area | New Zealand Pacific Islands[1] |
Headquarters | Auckland, New Zealand |
Programming | |
Picture format | 576i 16:9 (SDTV) |
Ownership | |
Owner | Television New Zealand |
Sister channels | |
History | |
Launched | 30 March 2008 |
Closed | 30 June 2012 |
Replaced by | TVNZ 1+1 |
Former names | TVNZ News 24 (working title) |
Availability | |
Terrestrial | |
Freeview|HD | Channel 7 |
It featured TVNZ News Now updates every hour from 6 am to 11 pm, with a specialised 'zone' between 6 am and 9 am on weekdays, throughout which ten-minute bulletins were aired back-to-back. TVNZ 7 also featured an hour-long bulletin, TVNZ News at 8, at 8 pm each night. It was hosted on weeknights by Greg Boyed and on weekends by Miriama Kamo.
While it was originally reported to be a 'rolling news channel', similar to Sky News and CNN Headline News, Eric Kearley, head of TVNZ's Digital Launch team, stated about 70% of the schedule would be "factual variety" programming – a mix of local and overseas documentaries, and programmes that discuss current events and sport, with the remaining 30% being the news updates. A full schedule was released on 28 February 2008.
The channel was relaunched on 1 March 2011, taking some programming from TVNZ 6, another Freeview-based digital channel, when TVNZ decided to transform into an interactive broadcast station TVNZ U. On 6 April 2011, it was officially announced that TVNZ 7 would cease broadcast in June 2012. This was confirmed when Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman stated on behalf of the government that they would not extend further funding for the channel due to low ratings.[3] This was despite viewing figures that suggested half of all households with Freeview at the time were watching TVNZ 7 – around 700,000 people – and not the 207,000 claimed by Coleman.[4] In March 2012, Television New Zealand confirmed this decision and announced there would be no eleventh-hour reprieve for TVNZ 7.[5]
TVNZ 7 was replaced on 1 July 2012 by TV One Plus 1, a timeshift channel of TV One.