NHNZ, formerly Natural History New Zealand, is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

-based television production house. It works and co-produces with multiple major global broadcasters: Discovery Channel,

Animal Planet Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily ...

, Discovery Science,

A&E Television Networks A&E Networks (stylized as A+E NETWORKS) is an American multinational broadcasting company that is a 50–50 joint venture between Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company through its General Entertainment Content division. The company o ...

, National Geographic Channel,

Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United S ...

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

(Japan),

France 5 France 5 () is a French free-to-air public television channel, part of the France Télévisions group. Principally featuring educational programming, the channel's motto is ''la chaîne de la connaissance et du savoir'' (the knowledge network). ...

and

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

(Germany). NHNZ's programmes are available in 180 countries.

History

The early years

NHNZ was originally formed as the Natural History Unit of TVNZ. The unit was created in 1977, with the aim of telling stories of New Zealand native and endangered species. The unit's first documentaries made were a series of six 15-minute programmes called ''Hidden Places'' which featured various New Zealand habitats, notably Okarito, White Island,

Fiordland Fiordland is a geographical region of New Zealand in the south-western corner of the South Island, comprising the westernmost third of Southland. Most of Fiordland is dominated by the steep sides of the snow-capped Southern Alps, deep lake ...

, Mackenzie Country and

Sinclair Wetlands The Sinclair Wetlands (''Te Nohoaka o Tukiauau'') are an internationally renowned wetlands located to the south west of Dunedin, New Zealand, at the southern edge of the Taieri Plains. They are on the western side of Lake Waipori and approximate ...

, near Dunedin. The first programme that captured international attention was the story of

Don Merton Donald Vincent Merton (22 February 193910 April 2011) was a New Zealand conservationist best known for saving the black robin from extinction. He also discovered the lek breeding system of the kākāpō. When Merton began his work as a conser ...

's rescue of the New Zealand

black robin The black robin or Chatham Island robin ( Moriori: ''karure'', mi, kakaruia; ''Petroica traversi'') is an endangered bird from the Chatham Islands off the east coast of New Zealand. It is closely related to the South Island robin (''P. australi ...

from the brink of extinction. Several programmes were made chronicling this success story – ''Seven Black Robins'', ''The Robins Return'' and finally ''Chatham Island a Black Robin Story''. In 1997 the production house was sold, and became a subsidiary of

Fox International Channels Fox Networks Group (FNG) is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company that oversees international television assets that were acquired from 21st Century Fox. It produces and distributes more than 300 entertainment, film, sports and factual channe ...

. In October 2012, former Fox executive David Haslingden acquired 100% of NHNZ.

Blue Ant Media acquisition

In May 2017, the Canadian media company

Blue Ant Media Blue Ant Media Inc. is a Canadian broadcasting and media company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The company was founded by Michael MacMillan and formed in 2011 following the acquisition of Glassbox Television. Its name was chosen in refere ...

acquired NZHNZ and its parent company, the RACAT Group. In mid-July 2020, Blue Ant Media announced that it would be selling NHNZ's Melville Street building in order to avoid having capital tied up in real estate. However, the company would remain in the premises. In January 2021, television producer Julie Christie purchased a majority stake in NHNZ and became chief executive officer. Blue Ant Media retained a significant minority interest in the company, which was rebranded NHNZ Worldwide.

Documentaries

Notable work

NHNZ is known for their extensive work in creating documentaries in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

. The first, in 1982, featured the private life of Adelie penguins, paved the way for a further 18 titles. ''Icebird'' and ''Under the Ice'' were early offshore successes for the company. An early pair of documentaries produced by NHNZ, ''Emperors of Antarctica'' and ''The Longest Night'', chronicled the over-wintering activities of scientists from Antarctica New Zealand, produced by Max Quinn. In 1992, these were joined by a third ''Solid Water Liquid Rock'' produced by Mike Single. This trilogy helped to establish a relationship with Discovery Channel. In 2010, NHNZ started producing 3D factual programming. NHNZ's first 3D documentary ''China Revealed: The Great Wall of China'' debuted on one of the world's first full-time 3D networks, -

3net 3net was an American 3D television channel that launched on February 13, 2011.

. In 2012, NHNZ announced it was taking a lead role in the development of cost-effective 2D to 3D conversion technology, in partnership with Korean company ETRI. ETRI will use NHNZ's HD documentaries as test subjects for trialling the new technology.

Notable series

Various series produced by NHNZ have received awards and accolades. In 2000, NHNZ cameraman Mike Single won an Emmy for outstanding cinematography for ''The Crystal Ocean'', which focused on on the cycle of water freeze and thaw in Antarctica''.'' NHNZ has made many successful series of programmes working with

, including ''

The Most Extreme ''The Most Extreme'' is a documentary television series on the American cable television network Animal Planet. It first aired on July 7, 2002. Each episode focuses on a specific animal feature, such as strength, speed, behavior, anatomy, or d ...

'', a series produced by Ian McGee. NHNZ produced 65 episodes of this series from 2002 to 2007. The forerunner to ''The Most Extreme'' was ''Twisted Tales'', two companion series produced in 1999 and 2000. ''Twisted Tales: The Bat'' earned NHNZ's second Emmy Award in 1999 for Ian McGee in the category of Outstanding Achievement in a Craft in News and Documentary Programming – Writers. The following year, Ian and co-writer Quinn Berentson were again nominated for an Emmy Award in the same category for ''Twisted Tales: The Rat''. In 2008, NHNZ began a new series, '' I Survived...'', which airs on the Biography Channel. The series has over 60 episodes, and has its own spinoff series, ''I Survived: Beyond and Back''. Other successful series include ''

Orangutan Island ''Orangutan Island'' is an American documentary television series, in the style of the earlier series ''Meerkat Manor'', that blends more traditional documentary filming with dramatic narration. The series was produced by NHNZ with creator Judit ...

'' and ''Life Force''.

Diversification

Over the years, NHNZ diversified its programming away from natural history. The genres covered were expanded to cover health (''Kill or Cure'' series); science (''X=Force the Science of ...'' series; ''

Mega Disasters ''Mega Disasters'' is an American documentary television series that originally aired from May 23, 2006 to July 2008 on The History Channel. Produced by Creative Differences, the program explores potential catastrophic threats to individual cit ...

'' series); adventure (''Adventure Central'' series); and people (''Tribal Life'' series; ''The Diva Mummy''). The company has also notably produced a range of engineering focused series under the ''Man Made Marvels'' and ''

MegaStructures ''Megastructures'' is a documentary television series appearing on the National Geographic Channel in the United States and the United Kingdom, Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, France 5 in France, and 7mate in Australia. Each episode is an ed ...

'' banners.

NHNZ Moving Images

In 2007 NHNZ established an Emerging Media team to maximise opportunities for either selling or re-versioning the company's footage for broadcast via a variety of platforms, including

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whi ...

clips and online video. Several years later it created NHNZ Moving Images, NHNZ's footage archive unit. This unit sells footage and outtakes from NHNZ programmes. In 2011 the unit signed a deal to represent National Geographic Channel's worldwide library of more than 20 years of accumulated footage from its blue-chip factual programming library, including hundreds of hours of HD footage.

NHNZ Worldwide

In 2021 Television producer Dame Julie Christie purchased a majority stake in NHNZ and become chief executive officer. A new company called NHNZ Worldwide Ltd was incorporated on January 29, 2021. Former owner, Canadian company

retains a significant minority interest in the company, which has been rebranded NHNZ Worldwide, and Blue Ant Media have a seat on its board of directors.

Other media

In 2009, NHNZ started up a gaming division, Runaway, which has developed several video games, both for social media (Facebook), and mobile. Runaway notably produced Flutter, a Facebook game that involves breeding butterflies and is associated with the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...

. After being accredited by Facebook, the game grew to have more than 600,000 online players. Flutter play online ceased in December 2011 to allow for new game development, and Runaway announced in September 2012 on its blog that it had a mobile version of the game being tested and almost ready to be released. Runaway has also produced mobile games Howling Mouse and Puzzle Planet, both in association with National Geographic Channel.

Education

In 2002, NHNZ entered into a partnership with the University of Otago, in Dunedin, New Zealand, to create a Masters in Science Communication, in Science and Natural History Film-making. The two-year course takes up to 12 students a year, and is based on a year of course work, and a year making a commercial-length documentary.

References

External links

NHNZNHNZ Moving ImagesRunaway PlayBeach House PicturesAquavision TV Production
{{News Corporation Mass media in Dunedin Television production companies of New Zealand 1977 establishments in New Zealand Companies established in 1977