One Person In Five Has A Television Set

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30998, 2 March 1966, Page 18

One Person In Five Has A Television Set

One person in every five in New Zealand hires or owns a television set. With 412,940 sets licensed at the end of December last, the total could be interpreted to represent one set to every family of five. Since December, 1964, the number of licensed sets had increased by 125,557. The figures released by the Post Office cover 21 licensing districts and sets on ships. Of the total of 412,940 sets, 55.206, or nearly 7i percent, are covered by hirers’ licences. There was a total of 357,393 ordinary licences and 341 free licences (hospitals, invalids, and so on). Auckland, with a total of 117,827 licences, an increase of 22,784, had the highest number of sets licensed and was more than double Wellington’s total of 53.378. Wellington's increase during the year was 11,199. Christchurch had a total of

52,588 sets, an increase of 13,085, Hamilton had 29,915. an increase of 8658, and Dunedin 24,853, an increase of 7186. Six other centres had in excess of 10,000 sets licensed. With the increases in parentheses they are: Rotorua 18.460 (7095); Napier, 17,393 (7175); Palmerston North, 16,722 ( 6494); Invercargill, 13,616 (10,076); New Plymouth, 12,140 ( 5779); Wanganui, 10,326 (4588).

In Auckland there was a total of 94,594 ordinary licences, 44 free licences, and 23,189 hirers’ licences. Wellington had 45,210 ordinary licences, 47 free licences, and 8121 hirers’ licences. The figures for Christchurch were 47,996 ordinary. 52 free, and 5403 hired. Hamilton, 26,515 ordinary, 17 free, and 3383 hired; Dunedin, 21,049 ordinary, 38 free and 3766 hired: Rotorua. 17,413 ordinary, 11 free, and 1036 hired.

Hirers’ licences had increased by 8917 in Auckland from 14,272 in December, 1964, to 23,189 last year. In Wellington they had gone from 4848 to 8121, an increase of 3273, and in Christchurch they had risen from 3005 to 4540, an increase of 1535. There were 32 licensed television sets on ships and these were shown to be covered by hirers’ licences. Westport district, with only two ordinary licences, had fewest licensed sets on the list.