CIHF-DT (PatrZDZ's vision)

**CIHF-DT** (branded on-air as MITV) is a television station, serving the Canadian Maritime provinces that is licensed to Halifax, Nova Scotia, part of the Canwest Global System. The station is owned and operated by network parent Canwest (a subsidiary of Caribbean-based financial solutions firm Sygnus Corporation). CIHF's studios are located on Gottingen Street in downtown Halifax; and the transmitter is located on Washmill Lake Drive on the city's west side.

CIHF also operates a semi-satellite in Saint John, New Brunswick, CIHF-DT-2, which broadcasts on VHF channel 12. This feed serves transmitters in New Brunswick as well as Prince Edward Island. A separate New Brunswick newscast, as well as localized commercials, and an annual charity telethon from Saint John air on the New Brunswick transmitters.

## History

CIHF-TV was launched on September 5, 1988, and was initially owned by the Irving family of Saint John, New Brunswick and their New Brunswick Broadcasting Company. It was co-owned with Saint John-based CHSJ-TV, the CBC Television affiliate for all of New Brunswick. The station initially had only one transmitter, in Halifax; it served the rest of Nova Scotia via cable. When MITV launched, it took all prime time American shows from CBC station CBHT—reportedly a prelude to the CBC dropping all prime time American programming nationwide.

Both stations are branded as MITV (Maritimes Independent Television), and their schedules are almost identical. However, the stations offers separate newscasts to their respective provinces and opportunities for advertisers to buy ad space on one or both stations. Furthermore, although the Saint John station's callsign made it appear that it was a rebroadcaster of the Halifax station, both stations are separately licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). At the time, MITV was the only over-the-air independent television station in the area, with studios and main operation centre in Halifax, and all other functions in Saint John. As MITV shared owners with CHSJ-TV, a popular joke in the Maritimes was that MITV stood for "More Irving Television".

In 1989, retransmitters were added in Bridgewater, Truro, and Wolfville. The transmitter network was expanded further in 1993 to include service to Shelburne, Sydney, New Glasgow, and Yarmouth.

After losing CA$5 million each year since sign-on, MITV was sold to Canwest on August 29, 1994. This was part of a three-way deal, which saw the CBC taking control of CHSJ-TV, moving it to Fredericton, and renaming it CBAT, making it a full CBC O&O. Later in the year, MITV moved its operational and business headquarters to Halifax.

In 1995, MITV's Saint John offices were moved out of the old CHSJ building and into a new facility in Brunswick Square. Within a year of new ownership and its resulting reorganization and marketing focus, the station became profitable for the first time in its short history. In August 1997, when Canwest rebranded its stations as the Global Television Network, MITV became Global Maritimes.

Additional retransmitters signed on in 1998, in Mulgrave and Antigonish.

On December 17, 2012, Global Maritimes officially began operations at its new home on Göttingen Street in Downtown Halifax. Previously, its operations were located on Akerley Boulevard in an industrial park in the Halifax suburb of Dartmouth.

## News operation

CIHF presently broadcasts 33 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6 hours on weekdays, and 1½ hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). In addition CIHF produces a daily lifestyle show called Maritimes Today (airing every weekday at 12 p.m.) and Sportsline, a half-hour sports highlight show (airing Sunday-Friday at 11:30 p.m.; it is produced from Toronto). The station maintains its news bureaus in Sydney, Moncton, Saint John, and Fredericton.

On January 28, 2013, MITV launched a three-hour weekday morning program (initially airing from 6–9 a.m.) titled the MITV Morning News.

### Newscast times

Weekdays:

* 6am - 10am: Global News Morning with Alyse Hand and Paul Brothers
* 12pm - 1pm: Maritimes Today with Paul Brothers and Eilish Bonang
* 5:30pm - 6pm: Global News at 5:30 with Marie Adsett
* 6pm - 7pm: Global News at 6 with Paul Palmeter and Marie Adsett
* 11pm - 11:30pm: Global News at 11 with Paul Palmeter
* 11:30pm - 12:05am: Sportsline with Rob Leth

Saturdays:

* 6pm - 7pm: Global News at 6 with Rebecca Lau
* 11pm - 11:30pm: Global News at 11 with Rebecca Lau

Sundays:

* 6pm - 7pm: Global News at 6 with Rebecca Lau
* 11pm - 11:30pm: Global News at 11 with Rebecca Lau
* 11:30pm - 12:05am: Sportsline with Anthony Bruno

## Other programming

The Maritimes are located in the Atlantic Time Zone, which is one hour ahead of the Eastern Time Zone, where Global's CIII in Toronto is located. In order to accommodate such a time zone difference and maximize simultaneous substitution opportunities with the American stations carried on cable, CIHF's primetime schedule deviates from that of most other Canwest Global System stations, with some shows airing earlier in the evening, and occasionally on different nights, compared to other Canwest stations.

## Transmitters

Below is a list of the rebroadcast transmitters of the Halifax feed:

Below is a list of the rebroadcast transmitters of the Saint John feed.