U (TV channel)
defunct New Zealand TV channel
TVNZ U, more known as U, was an interactive youth-oriented New Zealand television channel, owned and operated by TVNZ. The channel launched on 13 March 2011, and featured reality programming, as well as an interactive live show and music content. It replaced the now defunct TVNZ 6. Leading up to the launch of U, there were 13 days' worth of promotional videos and programming information aired to advertise the new channel.
Initially, U closed down every night at midnight, playing the Goodnight Kiwi animation to signal the end of nightly broadcast. During its closedown period of 12-midnight to 12-noon, the channel looped a video of non-stop dancing with text reading U 'returns at midday'.
From February 2012, the channel began broadcasting infomercials from midnight until midday, except on Saturday and Sunday mornings, when it is illegal to broadcast adverts. On Saturday and Sunday, the channel closes down as usual, with infomercials played until 6am, a graphic is displayed from 6am until midday, and then the broadcast 'returns at midday'.
In April 2013, the channel launched U Late, a late night version of its flagship programme U Live, but without the music videos. It was described as late night antics and chat, live and interactive every evening.
On 29 July 2013, TVNZ announced that U would cease broadcast on 31 August 2013, after two years since the channel launch.
“U (TV channel)” enters the record as defunct New Zealand TV channel. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what channel, defunct and Zealand can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7876189. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2011, 2012 and 2013.
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This entry incorporates text from “U (TV channel)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.