1970-85: New Zealand Feltex Awards
Established in 1970, these annual awards for locally produced television programmes were sponsored by Feltex NZ Ltd, and set up by the New Zealand Television Producers' and Directors' Association (TVPDA). The TVPDA was established mainly to improve professional standards of TV production. Its membership covered all producers and directors working for television in this country, regardless of whether they were directly employed by the NZBC.
Ian Cross, New Zealand novelist, journalist, Listener editor and one-time chairman of the NZBC recalls in his memoir The Unlikely Bureaucrat that he helped establish the awards and brokered Feltex's support for them during the time he worked for them.
The Feltex award itself went through several design changes over its 15 years, from its beginnings as essentially a big plastic brick oblong in shape designed by Michael Smythe, transforming into a large brass bottle opener as seen in the third image to the right, kindly provided by Roger Gascoigne... Yes, THAT Roger Gascoigne...
The results I list in this section came from New Zealand Television: The First 25 Years by Robert Boyd-Bell.