First TV was the name of a

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

network that was operated in

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 ...

's two main North Island cities,

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

and

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

Telecom New Zealand Spark New Zealand Limited is a New Zealand telecommunications company providing fixed-line telephone services, a mobile phone network, internet access services, and (through its Spark Digital division) ICT services to businesses. It was know ...

in the 1990s.

Trial stage

First Media was an owned subsidiary of Telecom NZ. First Media ran the two Cable operations in Auckland and Wellington which traded as First Television. First Media was started as a trial of cable television by Telecom in 1995. The trial, which operated in association with

SKY Network Television Sky Network Television Limited, more commonly known as Sky, is a New Zealand broadcasting company that provides pay television services via satellite, media streaming services and broadband internet services. It is also a wholesale channel prov ...

offered 600 households in Auckland the three national broadcast channels that were operating, Action TV, three of Sky's subscription channels and six other channels. Considered a success the trial was extended and later expanded to include cable rollout in Wellington.

Commercial success

As part of plans to turn the trial into a commercial operation First Media had planned to lay cable past 140,000 homes by June 1998; however in November 1996 with only 80,000 homes past Telecom announced a halt to the rollout. Telecom decided to focus on utilising its existing network of UTP copper cable. On June 5, with a pilot

ADSL Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. ...

trial operational, Telecom announced First Media was to be shut down on July 31. Cable subscribers were disconnected and offered a refund on installation costs while

DSL Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric dig ...

subscribers continue to receive

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

services only. First Media provided traditional channels as well as a pay-per-view service that allowed subscribers to purchase movies as they wish to view them. First Media also offered the ability to view other channels on a per day basis and operated a

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

channel called "The Cube" that allowed subscribers to request songs.

External links

Telecom's Press Release Announcing Launch of First TVTelecom's Press Release Announcing Closure of First TV
Television networks in New Zealand