50 Years of New Zealand Television: 4 - Winners and Losers

Television (Full Length Episode) – 2010

This fourth episode in Prime’s series on Kiwi television history series charts 50 years of sports on TV. Interviews with veteran broadcasters are mixed with clips of classic sporting moments. Changes in technology are surveyed: from live broadcasts and colour TV, to slo-mo replays and CGI graphics. Sports coverage is framed as a national campfire where Kiwis have been able to share in test match, Olympic, Commonwealth and World Cup triumphs and disasters — from emotional national anthems and inspirational Paralympians, to underarm deliveries, snapped masts and face-plants.

In the 60s and 70s families sat down and they switched on this new box in the corner of the living room. On came the flickering images for outside of New Zealand, and they were really excited: there was the black shirt of the Olympic Games or the All Blacks or the rugby league team or the cricketers in their creams doing well, and we loved it as a nation. We saw us, a little country, making a splash via sport, via television.
– Broadcaster Keith Quinn