History
Television news in New Zealand started in 1960 with the introduction of television. These bulletins were broadcast from the main centres (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin) operating independently of each other due to technical constraints. The Wahine Disaster in April 1968 highlighted the need for a nationwide news network; footage shot in Wellington could not be broadcast in other centres around the country at the same time.
In October 1969 the country-wide TV network was completed. The first network news broadcast was live on 3 November 1969 at 7:35pm, read by Dougal Stevenson. This bulletin was possible due to microwave links being established between the four main centres; the programme was called NZBC Network News. Initially, it was read by Philip Sherry, Dougal Stevenson or Bill Toft on a rotating roster.
Prior to the building of the Warkworth Station in 1971, international programmes could not be received live – the footage had to be flown into New Zealand and was often days old. Angela D'Audney was the first female newsreader in New Zealand, from 1973. The Network News featured many other newsreaders until the NZBC was dissolved in 1975. The programme was then renamed simply News. Several regional news programmes were broadcast alongside the Network News to different regions of the country during this time. As the popularity of these bulletins decreased in the late 1980s, the main Network News bulletin was revamped in 1987. It was renamed Network News with Judy Bailey and Neil Billington presenting the show from the beginning. Richard Long and Tony Ciprian alternately presented and produced sports news. Later that year Long took over from Billington as 'Network News' news co-anchor, the beginning of a partnership that would continue for much of the next fifteen years.Ciprian moved to the new commercial channel TV3, the station's first sports news producer. He was with 3 News for almost 20 years.
Until 1990, four regional news programmes were broadcast – one in each of the four main regions: Top Half (Auckland and the upper North Island), Today Tonight (Wellington and the lower North Island and originally the upper South Island), The Mainland Touch (Christchurch, Canterbury and later the upper South Island) and The South Tonight (Otago and Southland). These programmes ran for 20 minutes during the main news programme at 6.30pm, between the sports and weather news, but were later moved to before the main broadcast to make way for the current affairs programme, Holmes, which was first broadcast on 11 April 1989. It carried the famous tagline "Those were our people today, that's Holmes tonight". Holmes screened at 6.30pm weekdays, so the Network News was moved back to its current time of 6:00pm.
1989 saw the introduction of the first One News foreign correspondents – Liam Jeory in London and Susan Wood in Sydney.
In 1989, Network News was relaunched as One Network News; it's renaming due to competition from new broadcasting station TV3's news programme 3 National News. In 1995, the main 6pm bulletin was extended from 30 to 60 minutes, coinciding with the unveiling of a new studio set which was used until 2003. On 11 August 1997, the early morning Telstra Business and Breakfast shows were first aired; Telstra Business was hosted by Michael Wilson; Breakfast hosted by Susan Wood and Mike Hosking.
The end of 1997 saw the replacement of weekend news presenters Angela D'Audney and Tom Bradley with husband and wife Simon Dallow and Alison Mau. Bradley resigned, but D'Audney stayed as a backup presenter for other bulletins until her death in February 2002, from a brain tumour.
In 1998, TVNZ signed 3 News anchor John Hawkesby to replace Richard Long from the start of 1999. But when Haweskby began presenting One Network News at 6pm alongside Judy Bailey, there was a public outcry over the separation of Bailey and Long, that lead to Long reinstated as co-anchor at 6pm three weeks later. Hawkesby later took TVNZ to court, a dispute that he subsequently won.
The show was renamed again on 31 December 1999, this time to the current name of One News.
2003 saw a major shake up of TVNZ's news and current affairs programming with entering head Bill Ralston making sweeping changes to the formats of many programmes. A new state-of-the-art studio came into use for One News programmes, but many presenters were culled. The changes saw the end of Long and Bailey's 15-year partnership; from January 2004, the main 6pm bulletin reverted to a single-headed broadcast with Judy Bailey as anchor. Jim Hickey, TVNZ's most popular weather presenter, and sports presenter April Bruce (née Ieremia) also left in 2003. Jim returned to One News in 2007.
The current affairs programme, Close Up was launched in November 2004, when Paul Holmes, host of the Holmes programme, resigned following failed contract negotiations. Close Up followed the same format as Holmes, but was hosted by Susan Wood until her sudden resignation in 2006. Mark Sainsbury became the main host following her resignation.
In October 2005, TVNZ announced that it would not be renewing long-standing flagship broadcaster Judy Bailey's contract; some observers believe this was a direct reaction to the programme's market share decline in Auckland to 3 News. An emotional Bailey signed off for the final time at the end of the 6pm One News bulletin on 23 December 2005. She was TVNZ's longest serving newsreader and had been reporting and presenting with both NZBC and TVNZ for 34 years. When the 6pm edition of One News returned after the Christmas break of 2005–2006, it reverted back to double-headed presentation with Wendy Petrie and Simon Dallow taking over from Bailey.
The weekend 6pm bulletin remained single-headed until September 2008, when popular presenter Peter Williams joined Bernadine Oliver-Kirby as co-anchor.
Paul Holmes returned to TVNZ as the host on the new political programme Q+A in 2009.
TVNZ celebrated One News' 40th birthday on 3 November 2009 with some archival footage available on their website. Later that year, Jennie Goodwin, David Beatson, Dougal Stevenson and Lindsay Perigo returned to read one Breakfast news segment each.
A Saturday edition of Breakfast was broadcast from 3 September 2011, hosted by Rawdon Christie and Toni Street.
TVNZ commissioned a revamped news/current affairs set on 23 January 2012. This set is used for the broadcast of the following programmes:
- One News
- TVNZ News At 8
- Breakfast
- Close Up
- Te Karere
- Good Morning
- Q+A
- 20/20
- Marae Investigates
- Fair Go
Read more about this topic: One News (New Zealand)
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“It’s not the sentiments of men which make history but their actions.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that’s also a hypocrite!
There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries.”
—Edmond De Goncourt (1822–1896)