These bulletins were broadcast from New Zealand's four main cities (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin) operating independently of each other due to technical constraints.

This bulletin was possible due to microwave links being established between the four main centres; the programme was called the NZBC Network News.

Prior to the building of the Warkworth satellite communications station in 1971, international programmes could not be received live – the footage had to be flown into New Zealand and was often days old.

This was to avoid refitting the Wellington studio in Waring Taylor Street with colour equipment while awaiting the move to the new purpose-built Avalon television centre.

The launch of TV One also coincided with the opening of the Avalon television centre, allowing the news to broadcast primarily in colour.

Jennie Goodwin was the first female newsreader in New Zealand to anchor a nightly television news programme, although Angela D'Audney was the first two years earlier.

At the same time, Dunedin's 7:30 South was rebranded as The South Tonight and TVNZ introduced a feature segment called Nationwide; it contained regional items of national interest, as well as "sidebars" – items which, for example, focused on the human interest element of an event outlined in the network news.

In late 1983, Nationwide was dropped, with the main bulletin extended to fill the time and give greater sports news coverage.

During the mid-1980s, Philip Sherry and Tom Bradley shared the role of newsreader on a rotating roster with Richard Long and Tony Ciprian alternately presenting sports news.

The main bulletin was revamped in November 1986 and renamed as the Network News, with Judy Bailey and Neil Billington initially co-presenting in a double-headed format and replacing Philip Sherry.

In February 1988, sports anchor Richard Long took over from Neil Billington as co-anchor of the Network News, the beginning of a partnership that would continue for much of the next 15 years.

[6] July 1997 saw the replacement of weekend news presenters Angela D'Audney and Tom Bradley with husband and wife Simon Dallow and Alison Mau.

In 1998, TVNZ signed 3 National News anchor John Hawkesby to replace Richard Long from the start of 1999.

[7] Staffed by 20 journalists, nzoom included news, sports, entertainment and home and garden sections, in additional to being a web portal.

[9] 2003 saw a major shake up of TVNZ's news and current affairs programming with entering head Bill Ralston making sweeping changes to the formats of many programmes.

In October 2005, TVNZ announced that it would not be renewing long-standing flagship broadcaster Judy Bailey's contract; some observers believe this was a direct reaction to the programme's market share decline in Auckland to 3 News.

When the 6 pm edition of One News returned after the Christmas break of 2005–2006, it reverted to double-headed presentation with Wendy Petrie and Simon Dallow taking over from Bailey.

The weekend 6 pm bulletin remained single-headed until September 2008, when popular presenter Peter Williams joined Bernadine Oliver-Kerby as co-anchor.

Later that year, Jennie Goodwin, David Beatson, Dougal Stevenson and Lindsay Perigo returned to read one Breakfast news segment each.

The final Close Up programme screened on 30 November 2012 and in early 2013, an announcement was made of the replacement show, named Seven Sharp.

[24] In late July 2023, 1News revamped its intro and banner, by changing the colour from blue to black, and moving the name and job to the left side.

In early March 2024, TVNZ proposed ending several television programmes including "1News at Midday" and "1News Tonight" due to a decline in advertisement revenue and competition from digital competitors such as Netflix and YouTube.

[28][29] On 7 October 2024, TVNZ's management proposed closing down 1News' website by February 2025 as part of a NZ$30 million cost-saving measure.

[30] On 29 October, TVNZ abandoned plans to shut down its 1News website but proposed expanding the news content of its TVNZ+ streaming service.

1News at Six is 1News' flagship hour-long bulletin, airing nightly at 6 pm; it is hosted by Simon Dallow on weekdays and Melissa Stokes at weekends.

Sport is hosted by Hayley Holt or Andrew Saville, and weather by Daniel Corbett, Erin Conroy or Renee Wright.

Presented by Hilary Barry and Jeremy Wells, it features mostly current event or local human interest stories.

Presented by Jack Tame, it consists of an interview with a politician that has been in the news during the previous week and a panel debate on a political hot topic.