Television frequency allocation has evolved since the start of television in Australia in 1956, and later in New Zealand in 1960. There was no coordination between the national spectrum management authorities in either country to establish the frequency allocations. The management of the spectrum in both countries is largely the product of their economical and political situation. New Zealand didn't start to develop television service until 1965 due to World War 2 and its economic harm in the country's economy.
The demand and planning for television in Australia intensified after WW2, with the Chifley government first favouring the existing British model (state monopoly) in 1948, and New Zealand used a similar model during the introduction of television in the 1960s. Private broadcasting did not come to the country until the 1980s, but there was no spectrum expansion to cope with the new arrangement.
Australian television broadcasting commenced in 1956 in Melbourne and Sydney to coincide with the 1956 Summer Olympics.
Three stations commenced operations on a ten-channel spectrum arrangement: the ABC operating in the VHF low band (VHF Ch 2), and the commercial stations operating in the VHF high band (VHF Ch 7 & 9). At the outset, commercial stations were independently owned, but due to economic forces network affiliations were soon established.
This pattern of television spectrum allocation was replicated in most of the state capital cities over the subsequent decade, with the exception of Hobart (one commercial service on VHF 6) and eventually Darwin (both the ABC and the commercial service were allocated in the VHF high band).
Geographical conditions differed in Melbourne and Sydney. The Melbourne transmission towers were located on the nearby Mount Dandenong, and their elevation and broadcasting power on an otherwise relatively flat terrain meant that the broadcasting signal could be received for some considerable distance, although there were some areas that experienced reception difficulties due to hills or buildings.
In the Sydney "basin" (formed by the Blue Mountains) the broadcast towers were collocated on the original studio sites, and given the undulating geography of Sydney there were many areas that experienced reception difficulties. The Blue Mountain terrain in the West of Sydney meant that capital city broadcasting did not penetrate into the hinterland of NSW, unlike that of Melbourne. It is possible that the penetration of weak signals into the Victorian hinterlands hastened the demand for the establishment of regional television stations, which commenced in 1961.
The Australian Government restricted regional television broadcasting to one commercial service and a repeater station of the national broadcaster from the capital city ABC station. Regional television stations tended to be allocated to VHF 6, 8 or in some cases 10.
Allocation of channels on the VHF bands in New Zealand was rather haphazard. Originally, only channels 1 through 9 were used; channels 10 and 11 were added in the 1980s. Due to this artifact, TV One and TV2 (launched 1960 and 1975 respectively) largely used channels 1 through 9 while channels 10 and 11 were almost the exclusive domain of TV3 (launched 1989) and TV4 (launched 1997). One major exception to this was in Canterbury, where in the late 1980s several translators moved TV One or TV2 from channel 6 to channel 10 to allow the main Sugarloaf transmitter to broadcast TV3 on channel 6.[1]
Meanwhile, the allocation of the UHF band was much more organised. When originally allocated in 1989, each area was allocated UHF channels at four-channel (32 MHz) intervals. For example, Auckland was allocated channels 27, 31, 43, 47, etc., Wellington was allocated channels 28, 32, 44, 48, etc., and Christchurch was allocated channels 30, 34, 46, 50, etc. Infill channels were added at two-channel (16 MHz) intervals.
The United Kingdom and New Zealand until recently shared an FM broadcasting allocation of 88.0 MHz to 105.0 MHz. Since the early 2000s both nations have full use of the standard FM band due to reallocation activities related to their separate implementation strategies for digital television.
This smaller FM Band allocation (less than 20 MHz: 88 MHz to 108 MHz as is used in most countries) can be traced to the 405-line television system's VHF allocation block. The UK adopted the 405-line system but NZ did not. The slightly smaller allocation only posed problems for the UK for its densely populated metropolitan regions, but NZ had few problems with the smaller allocation.
NZ's allocation for FM remained smaller as if NZ had adopted the 405-line system. New Zealand considered adopting the 405-line system in the late 1950s to early 1960s but adopted PAL instead. This impacted the frequency allocation block for FM broadcasting making it smaller. New Zealand's FM frequency allocation issue was not fixed until the late 1990s, when the FM band was expanded to the standard full 20 MHz block. As of the mid-2010s NZ totally abandoned its VHF band for UHF channels above 25.
There is a frequency offset for many DTV channels between Australia and NZ, because of historical reasons relating to the introduction of PAL.
DVB-T channel allocation notes:
NOTE: Text in italics means these frequencies are not currently used but set aside as a Guardband or for future use.
External Data is from ACMA Register of Radiocommunications Licences – [1]
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The ABC has the highest number of transmission sites: often, but not always, SBS and ABC signals are transmitted from the same masts.
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Some commercial broadcasters have a call sign that operates over multiple areas, whereas others may only serve a single area. This is due to historical ownership of regional stations. Nevertheless, most regional stations are now affiliated with the major metropolitan networks.
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Digital television in New Zealand currently uses UHF frequencies between channels 26 and 39 (510-622 MHz), with channel 25 used as a guard band. Channels 40 to 48 are currently allocated but reserved; frequencies above this have been reallocated to 4G (LTE) mobile phone services in the 700 MHz band.
Rights held directly by the New Zealand Crown are managed by government entity Radio Spectrum Management. Frequency allocations are made to TV operators, both national (such as Television New Zealand and Warner Bros. Discovery New Zealand) as well as network operators Kordia (the former distribution arm of TVNZ) and JDA.
Channels 38 and 39 are currently provided to Te Mātāwai, a representative body established (by the Māori Language Act 2016) to represent Māori language interests, for use by the Māori Television Service.
Radio Spectrum Management last released a list of spectrum licence holders in June 2019,[5] with more recent data in their Register of Radio Frequencies.[6]
New Zealand
Australia