January – Auckland Folk Festival 1–31 May – New Zealand Music Month 31 May – Pacific Music Awards 1 June – Gold Guitar Awards (country music) 18 October – New Zealand Music Awards 6 November – Wellington International Jazz Festival Performing arts Benny Award presented by the Variety Artists Club of New Zealand to Ray Woolf MNZM. Television 30 January – Bill Ralston quits his post as head of News and Current Affairs at TVNZ, having presided over a slide in the 6 pm bulletin's ratings and revenues. (stuff) 13 April – Television New Zealand announces a round of job cuts, with at least 140 staff being made redundant; the worst hit area being its news division. (TV3) 2 May – The Freeview digital broadcasting platform is officially switched on. (One News) 29 May – TV personality Suzanne Paul and her partner Stefano Olivieri win the third series of Dancing with the Stars. Film 3 February – A remastered edition of This is New Zealand, shot by Wellington filmmaker Hugh MacDonald for Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan wins a bronze medal in the New York Festivals Film and Video Competition. (scoop) Internet 1 March – Telecom New Zealand and Yahoo! launch Yahoo!Xtra, a joint venture web portal replacing XtraMSN (Yahoo!Xtra), (wikinews) 9 August – Telecom begins unbundling the local loop, opening exchanges in Ponsonby and Glenfield to competitors. Sport Cricket see also 2007 in cricket 7 December 2006 – 9 January 2007 – Sri Lanka tours New Zealand. 12 January – 13 February: The Commonwealth Bank Series, a three-way cricket tournament between New Zealand, Australia and England takes place in Australia. The Black Caps are eliminated on 6 February. 26 January – Nathan Astle announces his retirement from international cricket. 28 January – Jacob Oram hits an unbeaten 101 off 72 balls against Australia, the fastest ever one-day century by a New Zealander 16–20 February – the best of three Chappell–Hadlee trophy series between the Black Caps and Australia is played; New Zealand win the series 3-0. Craig McMillan hits a century off 67 balls in the final match, beating the record set on 28 January for the fastest one day century by a New Zealander. (NZ Herald) 11 March – 28 April – The 2007 Cricket World Cup is held in the West Indies; The Black Caps make it to the semifinals before being beaten by Sri Lanka. 24