Entity | New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation

The New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC) was a publicly owned company of the New Zealand Government founded in 1962. The Broadcasting Act 1976 then reformed NZBC as the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand (BCNZ). The corporation was dissolved on 1 April 1975, and replaced by three separate organisations: Radio New Zealand, Television One, and Television Two, later known as South Pacific Television. The television channels would merge again in 1980 to become Television New Zealand, while Radio New Zealand remained unchanged. At 7:30pm on 1 June 1960, New Zealand's first television channel, AKTV2, started broadcasting in Auckland from the NZBC building at 74 Shortland Street, previously used to broadcast public radio station 1YA and now home to The University of Auckland's Gus Fisher Gallery. Owned and operated by the New Zealand Broadcasting Service. With the passing of the Broadcasting Corporation Act 1961, the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation was established, with F. J. Llewellyn as its chairman. During the course of the Bill through the House of Representatives in the session of 1961, provision was made for the establishment of privately owned stations and, although strongly opposed by the Labour Opposition, this became part of the Act. But before such stations could be established, the corporation, which took office on 1 April 1962, was required to undertake a review of existing coverage. At the time of transfer, the Corporation assumed responsibility for the control of 35 radio stations and four television stations. The number of licence holders for sound radio grew to more than 600,000. The tremendous appeal of television was demonstrated by the fact that in the first three-year period of development the number of licence holders reached a total of 275,000 (November 1964). The annual income from all sources exceeded NZ£5,000,000, more than NZ£250,000 being paid in taxation. Initially, the four television facilities were unlinked, and programming had to be shipped between each station. However, for urgent news video, it was possible to link the two stations in each island using Post Office Telephone Department (now Chorus) coaxial toll lines at the expense of a number of voice channels. This method was too costly for the regular programming.[citation needed]