Television broadcasting licence

There are no licences available for television broadcasting.

What you need to know

To own and operate a television station, you'll need to contact one of the following licence holders to arrange access to their terrestrial or satellite transmission capacity. You can also arrange to broadcast your own regional programmes on a complementary satellite service, operated by Kordia Ltd and Sky TV (who operate a satellite Pay TV service).

Fees

You need to buy access on an existing service from one of the licence holders to become a television broadcaster.

You may also need to pay:

Current licence holders

There are 4 terrestrial network licence holders who together form part of the Freeview platform. These are:

  • Television New Zealand
  • Mediaworks Television
  • World TV Ltd, and
  • Kordia Ltd.

Spectrum is also held by Te Mātāwai, and used by Māori Television to provide capacity to the Freeview platform.

Digital Television Channel Usage Table [PDF, 46 KB]

You can search the Register of Radio Frequencies (RRF) to find the full details for the licences and licencees. To do this, use Search Licences with DTV as a channel.

Search the Register of Radio Frequencies(external link)

Process

Step 1

Contact an existing licence holder.

Step 2

Arrange access to a licence holders terrestrial or satellite transmission services.

Step 3

Negotiate a commercial arrangement with them.

Step 4

Start transmission.

Technical information

Our terrestrial frequency plan supports 5 networks, operating from 30 sites around New Zealand. Each can provide coverage up to 87% of the population. Each of the above networks utilises 2 radio frequency channels — one issued at a main coverage site and the other at an associated site to provide infill coverage when needed. The upper part of the UHF television broadcasting band (622 – 686 MHz) is unavailable for licensing at this time.