commenced transmission on Tuesday 1 April 1975 at 2pm with a five-minute news bulletin read by Bill McCarthy, followed by the British drama series Harriet's Back in Town. Its two-hour opening special was broadcast live to air at 7pm that night and featured a preview of the programmes, plans and personalities for the new service. On Saturday 17 July 1976, after snow and gale-force winds cut mains power to the Blue Duck microwave station near Kaikoura, the station's diesel generator failed and left it running on batteries. The batteries eventually discharged by 7pm that night, severing the Television One network feed south into Canterbury, Otago and Southland. Technicians couldn't reach the station to repair the diesel generator and restore the network until late on Sunday morning, meaning most of the South Island missed the live opening ceremony of the 1976 Summer Olympics. 1980–present: TVNZ In 1980 the two television channels merged to form Television New Zealand, with the purpose of finally providing a dividend to the Government. The merger was promised to provide 'complementary programming' for both channels. The channel was renamed as "Television One" until early 1995, when it was announced on-air as just "TV One". Regional news programming was reintroduced in 1980 screening at 7.30pm for half an hour. The regional programmes broadcast from the four main TVNZ studios in Auckland (Top Half), Wellington (Today Tonight), Christchurch (The Mainland Touch) and Dunedin (7.30 South). In 1982, the regional programmes were incorporated into the network news bulletin with 7.30 South rebranded as The South Tonight. Each region would break out from the network news for a 20-minute regional programme before returning to the network news for the weather. In 1989 the regional programmes were transferred to Network Two in the new timeslot of 5.45pm, and Top Half and Today Tonight were axed later that year. In 1990 The Mainland Touch and The South Tonight were transferred back to Television One and screened immediately after the Māori news programme Te Karere (live at 5.20pm in the North Island, delayed at 5.35pm in the South Island) and before the network news. Both programmes were axed altogether at the end of 1990. In August 2008, TV One, along with TV2, moved to 720p high-definition for the start of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Both channels were originally only available in high-definition on the Freeview HD platform, before commencing high-definition broadcasts on