TVNZ 7

TVNZ 7

Country	New Zealand
Headquarters	Auckland, New Zealand
Ownership
Owner	Television New Zealand

TVNZ 7 is a commercial-free New Zealand 24-hour news and information channel on Freeview digital television platform and on SKY Television Digital from 1 July 2009. It is produced by Television New Zealand, which received Government funding to launch two additional channels. The channel went to air just after 10am on March 25, 2008 with a looped preview reel. After a countdown which lasted at least an hour, the channel was officially launched at 12 noon on March 30, 2008 with a special "kingmaker" political debate held within the Parliament building and featuring most of the elected minor party leaders.

It features TVNZ News Now updates at the top of the hour from 6am-11pm, with a specialised rolling 10 minute bulletin 'zone' between 6am and 9am, where 18 bulletins will show in that zone. TVNZ 7 also features an hour long bulletin, TVNZ News At 8 at 8pm each night, hosted on weeknights by ONE News Tonight presenter Greg Boyed, and formerly also by Geraline Knox, a lawyer and broadcaster who presented news bulletins on NTV-7.

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, has stated about 70% of the schedule will 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 is expected to be made available to viewers in the Pacific Islands, allowing New Zealand a 'voice in the Pacific'.

News

TVNZ NewsNow

TVNZ 7 operates as a rolling news channel between 06:00 and 24:00, with ten minute bulletins on the hour. This includes hourly bulletins from 06:00 to 23:10 every day, except for at 20:00, and rolling bulletins every ten minutes between 06:00 and 09:00 weekdays.

Every TVNZ NewsNow bulletin is researched, written, produced and presented by a single journalist. These include Fiona Anderson, Ben Christie, Jenny-May Coffin, Rochelle Gillespie, Tiffany Hardy, Sandra Kailahi, Miriama Kamo, Glen Larmer, Phil McGrath, Sonia Voigt and Renee Wright.

Because of this limited staffing scheme, the bulletins are scripted from news gathered from wire sources. These include One News and TVNZ affiliates Newstalk ZB, ABC America, ABC Australia, the BBC and CNN.

TVNZ News at 8

TVNZ News at 8 is an hour-long commercial-free news and current affairs programme based on the One News at 6 bulletin of the same evening. It airs seven days a week at 20:00 on TVNZ 7. Because the programme is commercial-free and has less sports coverage and simpler weather forecasts than One News, it is able to include the extended interviews that were the basis for the shorter One News reports, as well as more world news reports from international affiliates such as ABC America, ABC Australia, the BBC and CNN.

The programme is presented by Tonight host Greg Boyed on weekdays and One News at 6 Weekends host Miriamo Kamo on weekends, as part of their shifts for One News. The programme originally had a two presenter format, with Geraldine Knox on weekdays and Sonia Voigt on weekends.

General programming

Original programming

TVNZ7 includes two year-round, weekly flagship current affairs programmes:

• Media 7 - a media review programme with Russell Brown Media 7 [1][2]
• Back Benches - a weekly Wednesday show live from the Backbencher pub opposite the Parliament Buildings in Wellington by Wallace Chapman

On 23 September 2008, starting from 9pm, TVNZ 7 hosted a one-off live debate on Internet-related issues from Avalon Studios in Wellington. The debate, co-sponsored by InternetNZ, was hosted by Damian Christie, and moderated by the NZ Herald's Fran O'Sullivan and Russell Brown. The debating panel included ICT Minister David Cunliffe, Opposition ICT spokesman Maurice Williamson, ACT leader Rodney Hide, and Green Party ICT spokeswoman Metiria Turei. In a first for TVNZ, the debate was also broadcast over a live stream on the web site Debate.net.nz, complete with a live IRC chat feed.

Other New Zealand programming

• Asian Downunder
• Marae
• Secret New Zealand
• Te Karere
• Waka Huia

Imported programming

• Dateline
• Earth Report
• FIFA Futbol Mundial
• Four Corners
• Foreign Correspondent Postcards
• Golf Today
• ICC Cricket World
• Motorsport Mundial
• Sportswatch
• Tennis Central
• This Week With George Stephanopoulos
• Unreported World
• World News Tonight

External links

• Official Website
• Channel preview at YouTube

See also

• ONE News

References

• Drinnan, John (2007-04-24). "TVNZ voice in the Pacific". Retrieved 2007-05-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Sky in dark over TVNZ channels The Dominion Post. Retrieved on 15 April 2007.
• Norris, Paul (2007-02-15). "The Task facing Ellis". Retrieved 2007-02-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• It's a Fact - Around The Clock TVNZ. Retrieved on 18 November 2006.
• Drinnan, John (2006-08-04). "TVNZ wants $10m for news channel". The National Business Review. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
• "Two new digital channels for TVNZ". www.stuff.co.nz. 2006-11-14. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); |first= missing |last= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)