TVNZ plans an hour-long news bulletin at 8pm on Freeview - which it promises will not be a rehash of One News at 6pm.
The new, commercial-free news hour will be co-anchored by One News Tonight presenter Greg Boyed and Geraline Knox, a lawyer and broadcaster who presentednews bulletins on Malaysia's news channel NTV-7.
TVNZ yesterday released details of its new channel, TVNZ 7, and the 8pm news bulletin, which is yet to be named. The new channel will go to air on March 30 on the Freeview platform.
Around 30 per cent of the new channel will be news content produced out of TVNZ's Auckland newsroom.
The rest will be documentaries (old and new) and programmes which will debate and analyse current events. A range of presenters will broadcast 10-minute bulletins on the hour.
Overall, 70 per cent of the channel's content will be local and 30 per cent from overseas.
TVNZ's general manager of Digital Services, Eric Kearley, said yesterday that the new channel would not be a rolling news channel.
"It's like a New Zealand Al Jazeera meets the Discovery Channel."
He said the schedule had not been finalised but would include two locally commissioned shows - one a weekly political review show, and the other a weekly media review show.
Some items shown on One News at 6pm would feature on the 8pm bulletin, but it wouldn't just be a repeat.
"It will cover stuff more in depth and there'll be more discussion. On a slow news day it will be more similar, but on a big day it will be different."
Broadcasting School head Paul Norris said the 8pm bulletin would be a very useful addition. "The number of Freeview boxes [sold] is pretty small right now but will increase gradually."
WHAT'S ON
International content on TVNZ 7: * Current affairs documentaries from the BBC.
* Dateline from SBS in Australia.
* This Week with George Stephanopoulos from ABC America.
