CIVT

CIVT, also known as BC CTV, CTV 9 and CTV British Columbia, is a Bell Globemedia television station in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is a part of the CTV Television Network.

Station details

BC CTV's studios are located at the former site of the Vancouver Public Library , at the corner of Robson Street and Burrard Street . BC CTV (CIVT) broadcasts a 2 MW terrestrial signal on UHF channel 32 from a transmitter on Mount Seymour, making it the only CTV network station to broadcast on UHF.

BC CTV (CIVT) is the only CTV station in British Columbia and the only CTV station in the Pacific Standard Time zone. However, the station's UHF terrestrialsignal only reaches Greater Vancouver and neighbouring Whatcom County, Washington. Accordingly BC CTV relies exclusively on cable and satellite distribution to reach the rest of British Columbia.

Although the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission technically requires Canadian TV stations to identify themselves over the air by their call letters ("CIVT"), this rule is not enforced. Most Canadian TV stations identify themselves by their "brand name" rather than their call letters. On-air, BC CTV identifies itself as "Channel 9" - its primary cable channel number on most cable systems in southwestern British Columbia, and sometimes simply as CTV.

History

BC CTV first went on the air as Vancouver Television or VTV on September 22, 1997. The station started out as an independent, but already began broadcasting parts of CTV's network schedule, covering up the CTV bug at the lower-right corner of the screen with its own logo.

VTV's news operation started out similar to that of Citytv in Toronto, with a breakfast-period television show and an evening newscast where the anchors stood up and moved throughout the studio. Around 1999, VTV began moving towards a more conventional news operation. On September 1, 2001, as part of a major network shuffle in southwestern B.C.'s television market, CIVT became a full CTV network station.

As of July 1, 2002, CIVT stopped using the BC CTV ID on-air and now identifies itself only as CTV, as do several other CTV-owned stations (such as CKCK and CFQC).

In March 2004, CIVT became the first station in Western Canada to operate a full-time news helicopter, nicknamed "Chopper 9".