Television New Zealand, more commonly referred to, and stylized as TVNZ, is a government-owned corporation television network broadcasting in New Zealand and parts of the Pacific. It operates TV1, TV2,TVNZ Heartland, TVNZ U, TVNZ Kidzone24 and new media services. The channels provide largely entertainment shows. But still produces it's traditional public broadcasting themed shows.

A board is appointed by Minister of Broadcasting Jonathan Coleman to oversee TVNZ. Members are the chairman Sir John Anderson KBE (Wellington), Anne Blackburn (Auckland), Bryan Gould CNZM (Opotiki), Sir John Goulter, KNZM, JP (Paihia), June McCabe (Auckland) and Joan Withers (Auckland).

TVNZ was created in 1980, through the merger of Television One and TV2 (formerly South Pacific Television). Until 1988 it was paired with Radio New Zealand as the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand (BCNZ).

Approximately 90% of TVNZ's revenue is from commercial activity (such as advertising and merchandising)^{[citation needed]}. The remainder of its funding comes from government funding agencies.

Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH CBE (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. He has won multiple Laurence Olivier Awards, a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is known for film roles such as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Magneto in the X-Men films, and as Sir Leigh Teabing in The Da Vinci Code.

McKellen was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1979, was knighted in 1991 for services to the performing arts, and was made a Companion of Honour for services to drama and to equality, in the 2008 New Year Honours.

McKellen was born in Burnley, Lancashire, England, though he spent most of his early life in Wigan. Born shortly before the outbreak of World War II, the experience had some lasting impact on him. In response to an interview question when an interviewer remarked that he seemed quite calm in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks, he said: "Well, darling, you forget — I slept under a steel plate until I was four years old."

Sean Fitzpatrick MNZM (born 4 June 1963 in Auckland) is a former rugby union footballer who represented New Zealand, and is widely regarded as one of the finest players ever to come from that country. He is also the son of former player Brian Fitzpatrick. Sean Fitzpatrick is the Founder and Director of Front Row Hospitality Ltd, which includes Front Row Leadership.

Sean Fitzpatrick's high school education was at Sacred Heart College, Auckland. As a primary school student he attended at Mt Carmel Primary (Auckland).

A product of the powerful Auckland provincial side, Fitzpatrick made his international debut as one of the "Baby Blacks" in the 1986 Test series in France. Although most of the regular starting fifteen for New Zealand had been suspended following the unauthorised "Cavaliers" tour of South Africa, the All Blacks won, and a number of new faces made their mark on the selectors. Despite this start, Fitzpatrick still went in to the inaugural Rugby World Cup as second choice to captain Andy Dalton. However, Dalton had to withdraw from the early stages of the tournament due to injury, and although he recovered in time for the finals, Fitzpatrick kept his place in the team, leaving scrum-half David Kirk to skipper the side to victory against France in the final at Eden Park in Auckland.

Robert Greenwald (born August 28, 1945) is an American film director, film producer, and political activist.

His career began in the 1970s and '80s directing television and motion pictures, perhaps most notably the big-budget musical Xanadu (1980), Since the late 1990s, Greenwald has specialized in documentaries emphasizing a left-wing/progressive perspective.

Greenwald was born and raised in New York City, the son of Ruth and Harold Greenwald. He attended the city's High School of Performing Arts. He was active in New York theater, directing the plays Me and Bessie (1975) and I Have a Dream (1976), a play based on the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., with Billy Dee Williams playing King.

Greenwald then moved to Los Angeles^[when?], where he launched a career as a director for television. In 1977, he received his first of three Emmy Award nominations for producing the television movie 21 Hours at Munich about the massacre at the 1972 Olympics. His next Emmy nomination came in 1984 for directing The Burning Bed. During this period he produced or directed many^[quantify] television movies; The New York Times would later characterize this work as "commercially respectable B-list movies". Later, Greenwald would foray into film directing, including films such as Xanadu (1980),Breaking Up (1997) and Steal This Movie! (2000).

Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG (born 11 March 1931) is an Australian American media mogul. Murdoch became managing director of Australia's News Limited, inherited from his father, in 1952. He is the founder, Chairman and CEO of global media holding company the News Corporation, the world's second-largest media conglomerate.

In the 1950s and '60s, he acquired various newspapers in Australia and New Zealand, before expanding into the United Kingdom in 1969, taking over the News of the World followed closely by The Sun. He moved to New York in 1974 to expand into the US market and became a naturalised US citizen in 1985. In 1981, he bought The Times, his first British broadsheet.

In 1986, keen to adopt newer electronic publishing technologies, he consolidated his UK printing operations in Wapping, causing bitter industrial disputes. His News Corporation acquired Twentieth Century Fox (1985), HarperCollins (1989) and The Wall Street Journal (2007). He formed BSkyB in 1990 and during the 1990s expanded into Asian networks and South American television. By 2000 Murdoch's News Corporation owned over 800 companies in more than 50 countries with a net worth of over $5 billion.