    tv3 is the first new zealand television channel owned and operated by mediaworks new zealand. launched on 26 november 1989, it was new zealand's first privately owned television channel. the channel currently broadcasts nationally (with regional advertising targeting four markets) in digitally free-to-air form via the state-owned kordia on terrestrial and satellite. vodafone also carry the channel for their cable subscribers in wellington and christchurch. it previously broadcast nationally on analogue television until it was switched off on 1 december 2013. tv3 is general entertainment channel with a significant news and current affairs element under the banner of 3 news. about 50% of tv3's programming is local, most of which airs at prime-time. ==history== thumb|72px|left|original tv3 logo thumb|72px|left|later version logo applications to apply for a warrant to operate new zealand's third national television network opened in 1985. the broadcasting tribunal announced in 1987 that tv3 had won the warrant. tv3 initially aimed to provide a regionally based television service, with linked studios based in each of the four areas (auckland, wellington, waikato/bop, and south island). there were numerous delays to the launch date of tv3. litigation surrounded the granting of the warrant, as did the share market crash in october 1987, which wiped out a large proportion of the capital that tv3 required to establish the channel. the then minister of broadcasting, richard prebble, announced in late 1987 that much of the uhf spectrum in new zealand was to be auctioned to allow for an increased number of television channels, resulting in a reduction in the value of tv3's warrant due to the increased competition. the drawn-out tribunal process of frequency allocation that tv3 had just won would be replaced by a bidding process that would allocate frequencies in weeks rather than months or even years. these problems resulted in the ambitious regional plans being rationalised before 
English-language_television_stations_in_New_Zealand New_Zealand_television_channels Television_channels_and_stations_established_in_1989