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New Zealand is one of the countries where Coronation Street is regularly broadcast on TVNZ 1. It started in 1964. There was a huge outcry in the 1990s when the State-owned channel proposed to stop broadcasting it.
Episodes[]
From about 2006, it was being broadcast for an hour (including commercial breaks and a weather forecast) every Tuesday and Thursday at 7.30pm. There were catch-up periods when it screened on Fridays or Wednesdays too. Then TV ONE started broadcasting an omnibus edition at noon on Saturdays, but it stopped during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and was not brought back when the games were finished.
New Zealand was then around eighteen months behind Britain with the episodes. The Olympics caused another two weeks' delay.
2008-2009 catchup[]
In October 2008 another catchup began, with screenings also on Fridays at 7.30pm.
TV deferred the occasional catchup, such as Friday 6th February 2009 when it was supplanted by the Wellington Rugby Sevens.
The catchups finished on 17th April, with future weeks having only the old standard four episodes and therefore falling behind again, from the fourteen months.
2009-2010 catchup[]
Same Wednesday extras in summer, but finishing on 27th January, replaced by a cooking contest.
Late 2011[]
On 29th September, TV ONE proposed a move for Coronation Street, with the show changing from the prime time slot of 7.30 pm on Tuesday and Thursday nights to 5.30pm Monday to Friday along with a Saturday omnibus running from midday. This caused huge upset, with Coronation Street fans sending their complaints to the broadcaster, launching a petition and setting up a Facebook page . This move went ahead, to the public's dismay, for three weeks to air the finals of MasterChef Australia, coverage of the Rugby World Cup and coverage of the general election. On 4th November, TVNZ announced Coronation Street would be moving back to 7.30pm on Thursday and Friday nights. In May 2012 TV1 started broadcasting two further episodes on Saturday nights at 7.30 pm.
Early 2014[]
From 2014 Coronation Street began to be shown in a two hour block on Friday nights, while the two episodes that occur on Thursdays were moved to Friday nights, having four episodes being played on Friday nights from 7.30pm to 9.30pm. The change in times is due to dropping viewers year on year. Coronation Street will also be shown during daytime television at 1.30pm from Tuesday - Friday, the episodes being played at 1.30pm will be the same episodes as the Friday night before. The episodes are being repeated for people who do not have the ability to record the show at 7.30pm and can not watch it past 8.30pm.
2015[]
TV1 has made a bit more of an effort to stop falling behind. The normal pattern has been 8.30pm to 10.30pm on Friday night and 8.30pm to 9.30pm on Saturday night. By December we were viewing Valentine's Day 2014. On 26th December Roy was found at last (watching steam engines, of course) while Gloria was preparing to travel and Marcus was demonstrating (much to Todd's relief) that he was still gay.
2016-17[]
TV1 has made no effort to catch up with the UK, and NZ still lags eighteen months behind. TV1 also regularly changes Coronation Street 's timeslot, causing many complaints to the TV Guide. First they moved the Saturday omnibus to the later time of 9.30pm to 10.30pm. Then they moved half the Friday omnibus to Thursday. Coronation Street 's timeslot changes from week to week. It is usually around 9.20pm to 9.50pm, but can change to as early as 9.00pm or as late as 10.00pm without warning. Some weeks it gets taken off completely to make room for other programmes, often with no warning, explanation or catch-up. On 2nd December 2017, New Zealanders were looking forward to finally seeing the May 2016 episodes where Callum Logan's body is discovered, but TV1 replaced Coronation Street with car racing.
2018[]
In April the days were changed from Th-Fr-Sa to We-Th-Fr. A couple of Thursdays had a 9:05 start with three half-hour episodes, which if the pattern continued could have caught up with the UK in about 8 years. But more catch-up was soon promised.
In May a real almost-catch-up was announced. See 2018 catch-up options for New Zealand viewers. Prime time (i.e. mid-to-late-evening) was to be only one week behind the UK from mid-June after a special 2-hour gap-bridging show, produced by ITV, giving all the intervening important events such as births, deaths, marriages, and breakups.