At midnight on June 30, TVNZ 7, a commercial-free channel, will cease transmission, and will be replaced by TVOne plus 1, a delayed repeat of TVNZ’s flagship channel, on the same frequency. In a statement released on June 20, TVNZ 7 announced that the current commissioned series hosted by Tim Wilson, The Big Idea, will be available on TVNZ Ondemand following the closure of the channel.

A 36,000-signature petition was presented at Parliament by a 200-strong procession on June 28 to protest the closure of the three-year-old channel, according to APN News & Media’s The New Zealand Herald. The Herald also reported that the channel closure was due to the government decision not to continue funding for the channel.

Because the new channel is a replica of TV ONE, broadcast one hour later, there will be no separate listings for it in print media.