Broadcasting Act 1989

The Broadcasting Act 1989 is the main New Zealand law dealing with programme standards in broadcasting, formal complaints about programmes, the Broadcasting Standards Authority, broadcaster levies, and electoral broadcasting.

For most businesses, the first question is not how a complaint works. It is whether your business is the broadcaster for the purposes of the Act. If you are, the Act places direct responsibility on you for standards in programmes and their presentation. That affects editorial decisions, records, internal approvals, and election-period workflows.

If your business only supplies content, production services, or transmission services to someone else, the answer may be different. But you should not assume you are outside the Act just because another party sits between you and the audience.

The Act applies to broadcasters. A broadcaster is a person who broadcasts programmes. Broadcasting means transmitting programmes, whether encrypted or not, by radio waves or other means of telecommunication for reception by the public by means of broadcasting receiving apparatus.

A programme includes sounds, visual images, or both, intended to inform, enlighten, entertain, or promote a person, product, or service. That definition is broad enough to catch ordinary entertainment and news content, as well as promotional material.

The Act also sets out important exclusions. A transmission made on the demand of a particular person for reception only by that person is not broadcasting. A transmission made solely for performance or display in a public place is also excluded.

That means a business with an on-demand library may not be broadcasting for that part of its service, while a scheduled public channel, radio service, or similar public transmission may still fall within the Act.

The Act says a person who supplies transmission services to a broadcaster is not a broadcaster just because they provide those services. But that protection is limited.

A transmission service provider can still be treated as a broadcaster if, where the broadcaster is a company, the provider is in a position to exercise control, either alone or with another person, over the company's operations, the management of a broadcasting station, the management of programmes, or the selection or provision of programmes to be broadcast.

For businesses using outsourced platforms, white-label channels, or technical partners, this is a practical risk point. The legal answer depends on control, not just labels in a contract or invoice.

The Act becomes relevant well before a complaint is filed. It affects everyday publishing and scheduling decisions, especially where content may raise taste and decency issues, privacy concerns, legal risk, or one-sided treatment of controversial public issues.

It also matters when you package paid promotions, sponsorship credits, films, or election-related material. A common mistake is treating standards as an editorial issue only. Under the Act, standards risk also touches booking systems, ad sales, production approvals, archive retention, complaint logging, and finance processes.

Section 4 is the centre of the Act for day-to-day broadcasting. It makes every broadcaster responsible for maintaining standards in its programmes and their presentation.

Those standards must be consistent with good taste and decency, the maintenance of law and order, the privacy of the individual, and the balance principle for controversial issues of public importance. Broadcasters must also comply with any approved code of broadcasting practice that applies to their programmes.

The balance requirement is specific. When controversial issues of public importance are discussed, reasonable efforts must be made, or reasonable opportunities given, to present significant points of view either in the same programme or in other programmes within the period of current interest.

The Act also restricts the broadcasting of films where a classification decision is in force under the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993.

If a film has been classified as objectionable, a broadcaster must not broadcast that film or any part of it. If a film has been classified on the basis that certain excisions are made, the broadcaster must not broadcast the film contrary to that decision.

This is a practical compliance point for businesses acquiring films, clips, or packaged content from third parties. Clearance should happen before scheduling, not after a complaint or regulator query.

Part 2 sets up the formal complaints system. The Act includes principles, formal complaints about programmes, decisions on formal complaints, a right for a complainant to refer a formal complaint to the Authority, time limits, consideration and determination by the Authority, notice of decisions, costs, and appeals.

The practical point for a broadcaster is that complaints handling needs to be organised and documented. The Act clearly creates a formal pathway and time limits. It also gives the Broadcasting Standards Authority power to determine complaints and award costs.

If your internal file is incomplete, it becomes much harder to explain what was broadcast, what standards were considered, and how the complaint was handled if the matter is referred on.

The Act defines an advertising programme. This matters where a business sells paid segments, sponsorship credits, or underwriting arrangements.

An advertising programme is a programme or part of a programme that is primarily intended to promote the interest of a person, or a product or service for that person's commercial advantage, and for which payment is made, whether in money or otherwise.

The definition also includes a credit for a sponsorship or underwriting arrangement if the credit is intended to promote those interests and payment is made. But it does not include the programme material that is the subject of that credit.

The definition also excludes certain broadcaster self-promotion, including promotion of a scheduled programme on behalf of a broadcaster and promotion only of a station identity on behalf of a broadcaster. It also excludes an election programme.

Part 6 deals with electoral broadcasting. This is not ordinary commercial advertising. The Act has separate provisions on broadcasting election programmes, hours during which election programmes are prohibited, the obligation to give identical terms to each party or constituency candidate, and programme standards in relation to election programmes.

For broadcasters, the practical point is that political content cannot be handled like a normal booking. Sales, scheduling, and editorial teams should use a separate election-period workflow.

For political parties and campaign teams, the Act also matters because it contains public funding, allocation, payment, return, recovery, and offence provisions linked to election programmes and election advertising.

The Act provides for public money to be appropriated for funding election programmes and election advertising in relation to a general election. A party may only receive an allocation if it has provided the required notice to the Electoral Commission and was registered on the Register of Political Parties at the time of the dissolution or expiry of Parliament.

When allocating money, the Electoral Commission must have regard to factors including previous votes for the party and its candidates, by-election votes, the number of MPs, relationships with other parties, other indications of public support, and the need to provide a fair opportunity for each qualifying party to convey its policies to the public by television election programmes.

The allocation decision must set out the allocations and may include conditions about how a party is to spend its allocation. An allocation may be made to a group of related parties. The Electoral Commission may vary an allocation in certain situations, including where a party does not accept it, ceases to be registered, fails to submit a list of candidates, or fails to comply with conditions.

The Act also regulates payment. A party must ensure the Electoral Commission receives all accounts issued to the party in respect of expenditure of its allocation, and any required information, no later than 50 working days after the end of the month in which the election was held. Late accounts cannot be paid from the allocated money.

The Act further deals with apportionment of some internet publishing costs, treatment of some funded costs, returns of allocation expenses, recovery of money from a party, and modifications for early elections.

The Act creates specific offences relating to broadcasting in the election context. A person commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $100,000 if the person fails to comply with section 70, section 71, or section 72.

A person also commits an offence if, in an election period, they arrange for the broadcasting of an election programme for or on behalf of a political party contrary to section 70.

The Act also requires the Electoral Commission to report suspected offences to New Zealand Police if it believes an offence against section 80I has been committed. For businesses that accept political bookings, election-period checks should be built into sales, scheduling, and sign-off processes.

Part 3 includes operational obligations that matter beyond editorial teams. The Act refers to rules in relation to retention of recordings of programmes, return on total revenue, payment of annual levy, annual levy, rebates, recovery of levies, goods and services tax, and an offence provision.

Total revenue is defined as all income classified as revenue by the applicable financial reporting standard. That means finance records matter, not just programme logs.

For a broadcaster, compliance is usually shared across legal, content, operations, and finance teams. If no one owns the filing calendar and supporting records, levy issues can be missed.

A radio station sells a paid interview slot promoting a health product. The station should check whether the segment is primarily promotional and paid for, because that may bring it within the Act's advertising programme definition. It should also keep the booking and approval records.

A media business runs both an on-demand video library and a scheduled public livestream channel. The on-demand library may fall outside the core definition of broadcasting, while the scheduled public channel may be in scope. The business should assess each service separately.

A broadcaster plans a panel discussion on a controversial issue of public importance. The balance requirement should be considered before broadcast so the broadcaster can make reasonable efforts or give reasonable opportunities to present significant points of view within the same programme or within the period of current interest.

A broadcaster accepts election-period material from a political party. The booking should go through a separate election workflow that checks the Part 6 rules, prohibited hours, and identical terms requirements where relevant.

A broadcaster acquires a film package from a distributor. Before scheduling, it should check whether any classification decision is in force and whether any excisions are required, then make sure the version broadcast matches that decision.

The Act received Royal assent on 27 May 1989. Most of it came into force on 1 July 1989, but Parts 3 and 4, sections 82 and 87, and Schedule 1 came into force on the day of assent.

The Act remains in force. The current version records that section 81, which dealt with advertising hours, was repealed on 17 October 2025. Businesses should avoid relying on older material that still refers to section 81 as an active restriction.

Before acting, check whether your issue turns on an approved broadcasting code, election-period timing, or another law referred to by the Act, such as the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 or the Electoral Act 1993.