The management of the country's largest collection of sound recordings is moving from Radio New Zealand to the New Zealand Film Archive.
The Sound Archives Nga Taonga Korero collection contains 70,000 recordings dating from the 1930s, most of which are in analogue form.
The material will still be owned by and housed at Radio New Zealand.
The public broadcaster will lose the $670,000 it receives each year to run the archive.
That money, as well as an extra $300,000 a year, and a one off sum of $1 million will now go to the Film Archive, a charitable trust, to pay for the digitising of the recordings.
The plan was confirmed on Wednesday Broadcasting Minister Craig Foss and Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Chris Finlayson. The handover will take place on 1 October.
Mr Foss says the change will mean the recordings can now start being converted into the digital format.
Mr Finlayson said Radio New Zealand had done an excellent job of caring for the archive and the transfer gives an opportunity to build on the legacy.
