History
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.
Read more about this topic: CIHF-DT
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