Signage at the TV3 and TV4 television studios in Central Auckland. Michael Bradley/Getty Images
When privately-owned free-to-air television finally came to New Zealand on Nov. 26, 1989, it was seen as the harbinger of a new era, and for a while it was.
Television New Zealand (TVNZ), then and still state-owned, was seen as staid and unadventurous. With deregulation that year, the new channel, TV3, ended its monopoly and gave New Zealanders a choice in where they got their TV news.
