CIVI-DT

Last updated

CIVI-DT
CTV 2 2018.svg
Channels
Branding
Programming
Affiliations CTV 2 (2011–present)
Ownership
Owner Bell Media Inc.
History
First air date
October 4, 2001(22 years ago) (2001-10-04)
Former call signs
CIVI-TV (2001–2011)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analogue:
  • CIVI-TV: 53 (UHF, 2001–2011)
  • CIVI-TV-2: 17 (UHF, 2001–2011)
Call sign meaning
Independent Television for Vancouver Island
Technical information
Licensing authority
 CRTC
ERP
  • CIVI-DT: 1.5 kW
  • CIVI-DT-2: 35 kW
HAAT
  • CIVI-DT: 99.6 m (327 ft)
  • CIVI-DT-2: 634.3 m (2,081 ft)
Transmitter coordinates
Translator(s) CIVI-DT-2 17 (UHF) Vancouver
Links
Website CTV 2 Vancouver Island

CIVI-DT (channel 53) is a television station in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, part of the CTV 2 system. It is owned and operated by Bell Media alongside Vancouver-based CTV station CIVT-DT (channel 32). Although the two stations nominally maintain separate operations, the Victoria station's newscasts have been anchored from the CIVT-DT studios since 2023. CIVI-DT's offices are located at the corner of Broad Street and Pandora Avenue across from the McPherson Playhouse and the Victoria City Hall in downtown Victoria, and its transmitter is located on the roof of Camosack Manor near Rockland. The station operates a rebroadcaster (CIVI-DT-2) on virtual and UHF channel 17 in Vancouver, with transmitter atop Mount Seymour in the district municipality of North Vancouver.

Contents

History

At the end of the 1990s, CHUM Limited only owned terrestrial television stations in the province of Ontario. Similarly, Craig Media only had stations in provinces within the Canadian Prairies. Both companies looked to expand their national presence, and both submitted a bid when the CRTC issued a call for applications for a new television station licence in Victoria; CHUM was awarded the licence in 2000. CIVI first signed on the air on October 4, 2001, as CHUM's first original station to be part of the NewNet television system. Their studios, dubbed "Pandora's Box" for its location on Pandora Avenue, had previously been the home of the Brackman-Ker Milling Company and other uses over the years; CHUM spent over $20 million restoring it, including outfitting the building with the latest in technology and bringing it up to seismic standards. [1] [2]

CIVI logo used under "The New VI" brand, used from 2001 to 2005. Thenewvi.svg
CIVI logo used under "The New VI" brand, used from 2001 to 2005.

Known on the air as "The New VI", the station started off with much pomp and circumstance, marking their launch with a street party around their studios in Victoria and around their Nanaimo bureau. [3] It boasted a large lineup of personalities, including former British Columbia New Democratic Party cabinet minister Moe Sihota. Original programming included Island Underground (focusing on Vancouver Island's youth culture), [4] The New Canoe (hosted by and produced for the area's First Nations residents), [5] [6] Environ-Mental (focusing on localized environmental issues), [7] the VI Parade (handling local arts and culture), [8] and a localized version of Speaker's Corner ; much of the launch schedule consisted of programming from other CHUM outlets (including CityLine , FashionTelevision and Ed the Sock's Night Party ), some of which had previously aired across the border on KVOS-TV in Bellingham, WA (which CHUM had been syndicating programming to since the 1990s in the face of repeated failures to launch a station in the area), along with American imported and syndicated programming (including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the Star Trek franchise), and a primetime movie on Sundays dubbed The Great MoVI (in the style of Citytv's Great Movies). [9]

However, the station wound up launching amid a massive TV realignment in the Vancouver market, and ultimately their launch was delayed from September to October; the various changes also meant that KVOS was displaced by CIVI from its long-time home on channel 12 on many Vancouver-area cable systems. [10] [11] The station also struggled to compete against CH owned-and-operated station CHEK-TV (channel 6, now an independent station), which had been the only local station on Vancouver Island for more than four decades. Gradually, personalities from the original roster were replaced by new faces, and some were let go without replacements. Not long after launch, CHUM purchased CKVU in Vancouver and converted it into the Citytv station for the region, meaning CIVI became part of a twinstick; as per CRTC regulations regarding twinsticks, CKVU was prohibited from airing more than 10% of the programming aired on CIVI, and newscasts were required to be separately managed.

As A-Channel Victoria

Logo used while as A-Channel, used from 2005 to 2008. Achannelnew.svg
Logo used while as A-Channel, used from 2005 to 2008.
The station's studio building in Victoria. It used to be nicknamed "Pandora's Box" for its location at the corner of Broad Street and Pandora Avenue, just across the street from Victoria City Hall and McPherson Playhouse. Your Island Television, Victoria, Canada.jpg
The station's studio building in Victoria. It used to be nicknamed "Pandora's Box" for its location at the corner of Broad Street and Pandora Avenue, just across the street from Victoria City Hall and McPherson Playhouse.

The station was rebranded as "A-Channel" on August 2, 2005, along with the rest of the NewNet system. The station would likely have been part of the original A-Channel system at its launch had Craig Media won the licence in 2000. On July 12, 2006, CTVglobemedia announced plans to purchase CHUM Limited, with the intention of divesting the A-Channel stations. [12] On that same day it was also announced that the morning news program A-Channel Morning would be discontinued, although this decision was supposedly unrelated to the takeover by CTVglobemedia (CIVI later restored a morning program to its schedule in the fall of 2007).

Rogers Communications announced a deal to buy A-Channel on April 9, 2007; [13] however, given the conditions of approval for the sale of CHUM on June 8, 2007, [14] Rogers acquired the Citytv system instead, while CTV kept A-Channel. [15] CTVglobemedia became the official owner of CIVI on June 22, 2007.

As A Vancouver Island

Logo for A Vancouver Island (2008-2011) CIVI 'A'.svg
Logo for A Vancouver Island (2008–2011)

The A-Channel system and Atlantic Canada's ASN was rebranded as A on August 11, 2008, with CIVI becoming branded as "A Vancouver Island". As a result, CIVI's newscasts were rebranded as A News on that date, although the station's employees had been using that title for a couple of months prior to the relaunch; the station also began producing a morning newscast (under the title A Morning) on September 8, 2008, but was later cancelled on March 4, 2009, due to economic issues. The program was later replaced with a simulcast of the morning show from sister radio station CFAX (1070 AM). [16] [17] [18]

CTV Two/CTV 2 Vancouver Island

As part of Bell Media's May 30, 2011, announcement of the rebranding of the A television stations to the CTV Two brand, CIVI became branded as "CTV Two Vancouver Island" on August 29, 2011. [19] As a result, CIVI's newscasts were rebranded as CTV News on that same date.

News operation

CIVI presently broadcasts two hours and 30 minutes of original newscasts each week, consisting of a thirty-minute local newscast each weekday at 4:30 p.m., anchored remotely from the Vancouver studios of co-owned CIVT. [20] This newscast is repeated, potentially with minor modifications, at 6:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. (the latter being a 35-minute timeslot). There are no longer any weekend newscasts.

At launch, the station's newscast was dubbed VILand News (sister station CKVR had originally used a similar title, VRLand News, for their first few years as a NewNet station); the station's news anchors walked around the studio instead of sitting behind a desk, mimicking the format used at Toronto sister station CITY-TV and other NewNet outlets. VILand News consisted of a 90-minute long evening newscast from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. and a half-hour late newscast at 11:00 p.m., as well as the two-hour morning newscast New Day (initially broadcast from the station's Nanaimo facilities with Bruce Williams). [21] Weatherman and local folk musician Tony Latimer delivered his forecasts from his own sailboat, the Forbes and Cameron, which was equipped with an omni-directional microwave transmitter so Tony could broadcast from Victoria's Inner Harbour or other offshore locations. [22]

To combat the station's low ratings, the evening news block was also repeatedly modified, being split into three different shows (VILand Live at 5:30, VILand Voices at 6:00 and VILand News at 6:30) in January 2002. [23] [24] [25] By 2004, CHUM higher-ups, in hopes of stemming the station's financial losses and low ratings, hired longtime CHEK anchor Hudson Mack as its new chief anchor and news director. Changes were introduced to the station's newscasts such as the introduction of a desk for the anchors; these changes appeared to have been effective. [2] While still trailing CHEK, the ratings gap between the two had narrowed.

Since Mack's arrival, the station has been honoured with a number of industry awards. In 2006, it received three Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio-Television News Directors Association International, for Best Newscast, Best Investigative Reporting and Best Sports Reporting. It was the second straight year the station won Murrows for its newscast and investigative reporting. In 2005, the station won eight industry awards, including two Edward R. Murrow Awards from RTNDA International, for Best Newscast and Best Investigative Reporting; and top news honours from the British Columbia Association of Broadcasters.

The station's weekend 6:00 p.m. newscasts were cancelled as of February 3, 2021, due to budget cuts made by Bell Media. [26]

On June 15, 2023, in the wake of cuts announced by Bell Media earlier that week, the station announced it had replaced its early-evening newscasts with a single half-hour 4:30 p.m. newscast (repeated at 6:00 p.m.) on weekdays, anchored from Vancouver, effective June 19. [20] The Times Colonist reported that this was the station's only remaining daily newscast. [27]

Notable former on-air staff

Technical information

Subchannel

Subchannel of CIVI-DT [28]
Channel Res. Aspect Short nameProgramming
53.1 1080i 16:9 CIVIMain CIVI-DT programming / CTV 2

Analogue-to-digital conversion

Logo used from 2011 to 2018 CTV Two.svg
Logo used from 2011 to 2018

CIVI shut down its analogue signal, over UHF channel 53, on August 31, 2011, the official date on which Canadian television stations in CRTC-designated mandatory markets transitioned from analogue to digital broadcasts. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 23, [29] [30] using virtual channel 53.

Related Research Articles

The CTV Television Network, commonly known as CTV, is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. Launched in 1961 and acquired by BCE Inc. in 2000, CTV is Canada's largest privately owned television network and is now a division of the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE. It is Canada's largest privately or commercially owned network consisting of 22 owned-and-operated stations nationwide and two privately owned affiliates, and has consistently been placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival Global Television Network in key markets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Citytv</span> Canadian television network owned by Rogers Communications

Citytv is a Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The network consists of six owned-and-operated (O&O) television stations located in the metropolitan areas of Halifax, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver, a cable-only service that serves the province of Saskatchewan, and three independently owned affiliates serving smaller cities in Alberta and British Columbia.

CKVR-DT is a television station in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the CTV 2 system. It is owned and operated by Bell Media alongside Toronto-based CTV outlet CFTO-DT, channel 9 ; it is also sister to 24-hour regional news channel CP24. CKVR-DT's studios are located at 33 Beacon Road in Barrie, and its transmitter is located near Essa Road/Highway 27 on the city's southwest side.

CFPL-DT is a television station in London, Ontario, Canada, part of the CTV 2 system. It is owned and operated by Bell Media alongside Kitchener-based CTV station CKCO-DT, channel 13. CFPL-DT's studios and local transmitter are located on Communications Road on the southwestern side of London, and its Wingham-area rebroadcast transmitter is located on Tower Road in South Bruce.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CITY-DT</span> Citytv flagship station in Toronto

CITY-DT is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the Citytv network. It is owned and operated by network parent Rogers Sports & Media alongside Omni Television outlets CFMT-DT and CJMT-DT. The stations share studios at 33 Dundas Street East on Yonge–Dundas Square in downtown Toronto, while CITY-DT's transmitter is located atop the CN Tower.

CTV 2 is a Canadian English-language television system owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc. The system consists of four terrestrial owned-and-operated television stations (O&Os) in Ontario, one in British Columbia and two regional cable television channels, one in Atlantic Canada and the other in Alberta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CKNX-TV</span> Former TV station in Wingham, Ontario, Canada

CKNX-TV was a television station owned by CTVglobemedia which served mid-western Ontario, Canada. It was part of the A television system. The station's offices, studios, and transmission facilities were located at Carling Terrace corner John Street in Wingham. A bureau in Owen Sound closed down in late 2004.

CHWI-DT is a television station licensed to Wheatley, Ontario, Canada, broadcasting CTV 2 programming to the Windsor area. Owned and operated by Bell Media, the station has studios at the Bell Canada Building in downtown Windsor with a secondary office in Chatham; its transmitter is located on Zion Road in Chatham.

CHRO-TV is a television station licensed to Pembroke, Ontario, Canada, serving the capital city of Ottawa as part of the CTV 2 system. It is owned and operated by Bell Media alongside CTV outlet CJOH-DT. Both stations share studios with Bell's Ottawa radio properties at the Market Media Mall building on George Street in downtown Ottawa's ByWard Market, while CHRO-TV's transmitter is located on TV Tower Road near Pembroke. The station operates a digital-only rebroadcaster in Ottawa, CHRO-DT-43, with transmitter in the city's Herbert Corners section.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CHMI-DT</span> Citytv station in Portage la Prairie/Winnipeg, Manitoba

CHMI-DT is a television station licensed to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada, broadcasting the Citytv network to the Winnipeg area. Owned and operated by Rogers Sports & Media, the station has studios at 8 Forks Market Road in downtown Winnipeg, and its transmitter is located adjacent to Bohn Road in Cartier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CP24</span> Canadian television news channel

CP24 is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by Bell Media, a subsidiary of BCE Inc. and operated alongside the Bell-owned CTV Television Network's owned-and-operated television stations CFTO-DT and CKVR-DT. The channel broadcasts from 299 Queen Street West in Downtown Toronto.

CTV 2 Atlantic is a Canadian cable television channel serving Atlantic Canada owned by Bell Media, with its studios located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc., it operates as a de facto owned-and-operated station of its secondary CTV 2 television system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CKVU-DT</span> Citytv station in Vancouver

CKVU-DT is a television station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, serving as the West Coast flagship of the Citytv network. It is owned and operated by network parent Rogers Sports & Media alongside Omni Television station CHNM-DT. The two stations share studios at the corner of West 2nd Avenue and Columbia Street in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood of Vancouver; CKVU-DT's transmitter is located atop Mount Seymour in the district municipality of North Vancouver, with additional transmitter link facilities on the roof of the Century Plaza Hotel in Downtown Vancouver.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CKX-TV</span> Defunct TV station in Brandon, Manitoba

CKX-TV was a television station in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, which served as a private affiliate of CBC Television. Owned by CTVglobemedia, it was the first privately owned television station in Manitoba. It shared its call letters with its former sister station, CKX-FM, owned by Astral Media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CHAN-DT</span> Global TV station in Vancouver

CHAN-DT, branded Global BC, is a television station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, serving as the West Coast flagship of the Global Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Corus Entertainment, the station has studios on Enterprise Street in the suburban city of Burnaby, which also houses Global's national news headquarters. Its transmitter is located atop Mount Seymour in the district municipality of North Vancouver.

CHEK-DT is an independent television station in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, serving Vancouver Island and Greater Vancouver. The station is owned by the CHEK Media Group, a consortium made up of station employees and local investors. CHEK-DT's studios are located on Kings Road in Victoria, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Warburton Pike on Saturna Island.

CityNews is the title of news and current affairs programming on Rogers Sports & Media's Citytv network in Canada. The newscast division was founded on September 28, 1975 as CityPulse as a standalone local newscast on the network's Toronto station owned by CHUM Limited. Through the acquisitions of the Edmonton, Winnipeg and Calgary A-Channel stations in 2004, it was relaunched under the CityNews brand on August 2, 2005 and later expanded to Montreal in 2012. The remaining Citytv stations airs the news headlines segments during each station's Breakfast Television morning show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CIVT-DT</span> CTV television station in Vancouver

CIVT-DT is a television station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, serving as the West Coast flagship of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside Victoria-based CTV 2 station CIVI-DT. Although the two stations nominally maintain separate operations, the Victoria station's newscasts have been produced at CIVT-DT since 2023. CIVT-DT's studios are located at 969 Robson Street at the intersection of Robson Street and Burrard Street in downtown Vancouver, which also houses the British Columbia operations of the CTV network itself, including the CTV National News Vancouver bureau. The station's transmitter is located atop Mount Seymour in the district municipality of North Vancouver.

In 2007, significant ownership changes occurred in Canada's broadcast television industry, involving nearly every private English-language network and television system. In addition to the shuffling of network affiliations and mergers involving various networks, several new television stations and rebroadcast transmitters also signed on the air.

In 2001, the Vancouver/Victoria, British Columbia, television market saw a major shuffling of network affiliations, involving nearly all of the area's broadcast television stations. This was one of the largest single-market affiliation realignments in the history of North American television, and had a number of significant effects on television broadcasting across Canada and into the United States.

References

  1. ↑ "The New VI - BUILDING". February 7, 2002. Archived from the original on February 7, 2002. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  2. 1 2 Mack, Hudson (October 3, 2015). Hudson Mack: Unsinkable Anchor. Harbour Publishing. ISBN   978-1-55017-721-3.
  3. ↑ The New VI Redux , retrieved January 23, 2022
  4. ↑ "The New VI - Island Underground". December 30, 2001. Archived from the original on December 30, 2001. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  5. ↑ "The New VI - The New Canoe". November 12, 2001. Archived from the original on November 12, 2001. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  6. ↑ Andrews, Marke (June 3, 2005). "First nations woman heads TV production company" (Newspapers.com). The Vancouver Sun. Vancouver BC. p. 31.
  7. ↑ "The New VI - EnviroMental". February 21, 2002. Archived from the original on February 21, 2002. Retrieved January 23, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  8. ↑ "The New VI - VIParade". February 13, 2002. Archived from the original on February 13, 2002. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  9. ↑ "The New VI - Schedule Grid". December 16, 2001. Archived from the original on December 16, 2001. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  10. ↑ Edwards, Ian (May 14, 2001). "West Coast station shuffle causes confusion" . Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  11. ↑ "Canadian Communications Foundation - Fondation Des Communications Canadiennes". Archived from the original on November 7, 2007. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  12. ↑ "Bell Globemedia makes $1.7B bid for CHUM". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. July 12, 2006. Retrieved July 12, 2006.
  13. ↑ "CRTC expected to OK Rogers' $137.5M buy of CTVglobemedia TV channels". Canadian Press via Yahoo! Canada News. April 9, 2007. Retrieved April 9, 2007.[ dead link ]
  14. ↑ "CRTC tells CTVglobemedia to sell 5 Citytv stations". cbc.ca via Yahoo! Canada News. June 8, 2007. Retrieved June 8, 2007.[ dead link ]
  15. ↑ "CTV expected to rebrand A Channel". Friends of Canadian Broadcasting. June 13, 2006. Archived from the original on March 22, 2015. Retrieved July 5, 2006.
  16. ↑ Morning TV show back on airwaves Archived January 7, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  17. ↑ CNW Group | CTV INC. | Double Vision: Fall 2008 Schedules Announced for CTV and "A"
  18. ↑ "A Victoria website confirming 'A' Morning debut September 8th". Archived from the original on September 4, 2009. Retrieved September 8, 2008.
  19. ↑ "Bell Media's /A\ Network to Become "CTV Two" This Fall" (Press release). Bell Media. May 30, 2011. Archived from the original on July 27, 2011. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  20. 1 2 "First at 4:30: CTV Vancouver Island launches live, hyper-local newscast". CTVNews.ca. June 15, 2023. Retrieved June 16, 2023.
  21. ↑ "The New VI - NewDay". Archived from the original on December 30, 2001. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  22. ↑ "The New VI - Personalities". April 2, 2002. Archived from the original on April 2, 2002. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  23. ↑ VILand Live at 5:30 - Opening 2002 , retrieved January 23, 2022
  24. ↑ VILand Voices - Open 2002 , retrieved January 23, 2022
  25. ↑ VILandNews - Open 2002 , retrieved January 23, 2022
  26. ↑ @AlannaKellyNews (February 3, 2021). "As for the weekend coverage, I'm..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  27. ↑ Devlin, Mike (July 4, 2023). "TV in Greater Victoria continues to evolve, with CHEK emerging triumphant". Times Colonist . Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  28. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for CIVI
  29. ↑ Digital Television – Office of Consumer Affairs (OCA) Archived November 19, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  30. ↑ CHCH – Hamilton shuts off analog signal YouTube. August 15, 2011.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.