Nationwide - News in Te Reo Māori

Television (Full Length) – 1982

This is the value of what Te Karere has been. It’s helped to normalise te reo Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand. A lot of people put it on in the background and they hear it and it just sinks into their DNA and they become familiar with the sounds of the reo, so they recognise that it’s around and that it’s part of us, of people living in Aotearoa.
– Te Karere presenter Scotty Morrison on the importance of long-running show Te Karere, Stuff, 10 February 2022

Te Karere started on TV2, but because of poor reception on the East Coast, with its large Māori population, the programme was broadcast there on Television One. Te Karere went to air at 5.55 p.m., and journalist Derek Fox recalled complaints from a local school that it cut into the end of Doctor Who. He also remembered that it was impossible to get a drink in the pub between 5.55 and 6 pm, when everyone was watching the show.
– Tainui Stephens in an article on the history of Māori television, Te Ara website, 22 October 2014

...I think this marae that we're at actually typifies that value in that you have schoolchildren coming in from all around the place, trying to learn something about Māori , not just about the language, but about culture and all sorts of other things. And there's no doubt that there is a regrowth of interest. Now I think television and radio have got to play their part in that regrowth of interest...Māori make up 15 percent of the population,. 15 percent of the shareholders in public radio and television. And they need and they can if you like demand to get that shareholding expressed a bit more than it is at the moment.
– Presenter Derek Fox on the need for a regular news service in te reo Māori, early in this report

...that's true that among younger people, few people are using the language all the time. But for middle-aged and older people, the language is still very much their world.
– Auckland University academic Bruce Biggs (who wrote te reo textbooks) is asked the point of te reo news "when very few" Māori speak the language