| Maritimes | |
|---|---|
| City of license | Halifax, Nova Scotia |
| Branding | Global Maritimes |
| Channels | Digital: 8 (VHF) Virtual: 8.1 (PSIP) |
| Translators | see below |
| Affiliations | Global |
| Owner | Shaw Media (Shaw Television Limited Partnership) |
| First air date | September 5, 1988 |
| Call letters' meaning | C Irving Family (station's original owner) Halifax & Fredericton |
| Former callsigns | CIHF-TV (1988-2011) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 8 (1988-2011) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1988-1997) |
| Transmitter power | 1 kW |
| Height | 241.0 m |
| Website | Global Maritimes |
CIHF-DT, channel 8, is a television station in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Owned by Shaw Media, it serves the Maritime provinces as an owned-and-operated station (O&O) of the Global Television Network. The station is currently branded as Global Maritimes, and was known as MITV (Maritimes Independent Television) until 1997.
The station has a semi-satellite in Saint John, New Brunswick, CIHF-DT-2, which broadcasts on channel 12. This feed serves transmitters in New Brunswick as well as Prince Edward Island. Prior to 2009, the New Brunswick feed broadcasted an annual charity telethon from Saint John. Currently, a separate New Brunswick newscast, as well as localized commercials are aired on the New Brunswick transmitters.
Global Maritimes is carried on cable 6 on most systems throughout the region, and is also carried on Bell TV on channel 204, along with the Saint John feed on channel 198 as of September 1, 2011. The New Brunswick feed was previously available through Star Choice (now Shaw Direct) channel 330 but was dropped in May 2008 for capacity reasons. On January 31, 2011, Global Maritimes was added back on Shaw Direct on channel 329.
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CIHF-TV was launched on September 5, 1988, and was initially owned by the New Brunswick Broadcasting Company (itself owned by the Irving family), which also owned CHSJ-TV (a private CBC affiliate at the time) in Saint John, New Brunswick. The station launched with four transmitters, namely those in Halifax, Saint John, Fredericton, and Moncton.
At the time, CIHF 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. The station offered separate newscasts to each province and opportunities for advertisers to buy ad space in one or both provinces. At the time, the station was known as MITV - Maritimes Independent Television. As MITV shared owners with CHSJ-TV, a popular joke in the Maritimes was that MITV stood for "More Irving Television".
When MITV launched, the station took all primetime American shows from CBC stations CBHT and CHSJ, which is believed to have caused the CBC to launch an all-Canadian primetime schedule on their English language network.
In 1989, transmitters 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 $5 million each year since sign-on, CIHF 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, CIHF moved its operational and business headquarters to Halifax.
In 1995, CIHF'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 1997, as a part of Canwest's rebranding programme, MITV became "Global Maritimes".
The remaining six transmitters signed on in 1998, growing CIHF's coverage to 90% of the Maritime population.
In October 2007 approximately forty employees at CIHF were laid off as part of a wider restructuring of the Global Television network and introduction of centralised news broadcast facilities.[1]
Global Maritimes airs two local newscasts a day from their Halifax studios: the flagship Evening News at 6 p.m.; and News Final, the region's only full hour local late-night newscast, at 11 p.m. The Evening News is followed by Global National at 6:30 p.m.; CIHF is the only Global O&O to air the network newscast at that time slot. Separate editions of the Evening News are produced for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. On Saturdays and Sundays, Global Maritimes airs the Evening News at 6 p.m. and News Final at 11 p.m. All of these news programs are broadcast from their Halifax studios.
Along with a growing number of other Global stations, CIHF has used a "virtual" studio since 2007. The anchor sits behind a desk in front of a green screen, onto which a virtual reality studio is digitally projected. Cameras and tapes are cued and controlled from a centralised control centre - which was originally in Vancouver, but was moved in August 2008 to Edmonton. A number of the redundancies made in October 2007 were directly attributable to the introduction of this new technology.
Global Maritimes also had a 5:30 p.m. newscast called the Early News, but was cancelled as of early 2007 to make way for a full hour late-night newscast. The Early News was the first attempt by Global Maritimes to compete against CTV Atlantic's flagship news magazine program Live at 5. Global also had a noon lifestyle show called The Noon Show, which was cancelled due to low ratings.
On May 31, 2011, Shaw Media announced that a new regional weekday morning newscast will begin broadcasting on Global Maritimes in late-November 2011. The morning newscasts will run from 6:30 to 8:30 a.m. Atlantic Time. [2]
On June 8, 2011, the station announced that Ron Kronstein would become the senior anchor/producer for both the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick editions of the Evening News; Kronstein was the former host of Live at 5 on ATV (now CTV Atlantic) until 2003. [3] On the same day, the station provided more details about its upcoming Morning News, and announced that up to a dozen new reporters, producers, and videographers would be hired at its bureaus in Halifax, Sydney, Moncton, Saint John, and Fredericton.[4]
Anchors
Weather team
Sports
Reporters
The Maritimes are located in the Atlantic Time Zone, which is one hour ahead of the Eastern Time Zone, where Global's CIII 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 schedule deviates from that of most other Global O&Os, with some shows airing on different nights compared to other Global stations.
Below is a list of the rebroadcast transmitters of the Halifax feed.
| Station | City of licence | Channel | ERP | HAAT | Transmitter Coordinates |
| CIHF-TV-4 | Truro | 18 (UHF) | 17.9 kW | 195.4 m | |
| CIHF-TV-5 | Wolfville | 20 (UHF) | 336 kW | 221.7 m | |
| CIHF-TV-6 | Bridgewater | 9 (VHF) | 13.9 kW | 164.5 m | |
| CIHF-TV-7 | Sydney | 11 (VHF) | 154.1 kW | 192.2 m | |
| CIHF-TV-8 | New Glasgow | 34 (UHF) | 18.8 kW | 190.7 m | |
| CIHF-TV-9 | Shelburne | 10 (VHF) | 3.9 kW | 113.2 m | |
| CIHF-TV-10 | Yarmouth | 45 (UHF) | 66.4 kW | 167.3 m | |
| CIHF-TV-15 | Antigonish | 21 (UHF) | 37.8 kW | 208.1 m | |
| CIHF-TV-16 | Mulgrave | 28 (UHF) | 2.65 kW | 128.4 m |
Below is a list of the rebroadcast transmitters of the Saint John feed.
| Station | City of licence | Channel | ERP | HAAT | Transmitter Coordinates |
| CIHF-DT-2 | Saint John, NB | 12 (VHF) Virtual: 12.1 |
6 kW | 354.0 m | |
| CIHF-DT-1 | Fredericton, NB | 44 (UHF) Virtual: 11.1 |
28 kW | 163.5 m | |
| CIHF-DT-3 | Moncton, NB | 27 (UHF) Virtual: 27.1 |
86 kW | 311.5 m | |
| CIHF-TV-11 | Woodstock, NB | 38 (UHF) | 51.9 kW | 174.3 m | |
| CIHF-TV-12 | St. Stephen, NB | 21 (UHF) | 31.3 kW | 240.8 m | |
| CIHF-TV-13 | Miramichi, NB | 40 (UHF) | 41.7 kW | 119.1 m | |
| CIHF-DT-14 | Charlottetown, PEI | 42 (UHF) Virtual: 42.1 |
6.4 kW | 146.0 m |
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