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. Known on the air as "The New VI", the station started off with much pomp and circumstance. It boasted a large lineup of personalities, including former British Columbia New Democratic Partycabinet ministerMoe Sihota. The station's news anchors walked around the studio instead of sitting behind a desk, mimicking the format used at Toronto sister stationCITY-TV and other NewNet outlets. However, the station struggled to compete against CH owned-and-operated station CHEK-TV, a station which had essentially held a monopoly over the television industry 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. The station received a boost in 2004, when longtime CHEK-TV anchor Hudson Mack joined the station 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 – although it still ranks behind CHEK-TV, the ratings gap between the two has been 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 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. On that same day it was also announced that the morning news programA-Channel Morning would be discontinued, although this decision was supposedly unrelated to the takeover by CTVglobemedia. Rogers Communications announced a deal to buy A-Channel on April 9, 2007; however, given the conditions of approval for the sale of CHUM on June 8, 2007, Rogers acquired the Citytv system instead, while CTV kept A-Channel. CTVglobemedia became the official owner of CIVI on June 22, 2007.
As A Vancouver Island
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 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 stationCFAX.
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. As a result, CIVI's newscasts were rebranded as CTV News on that same date.
News operation
CIVI presently broadcasts 13½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week ; unlike most CTV Two owned-and-operated stations, the station does not carry an 11:30 p.m. newscast on weekend evenings, though it does carry a half-hour 6:00 p.m. newscast on Saturday and Sunday evenings.
Notable former on-air staff
Moe Sihota – political commentator
Digital television
Digital channel
Analogue-to-digital conversion
CIVI shut down its analogue signal, over UHF channel 53, on August 31, 2011, the official date in which Canadian television stations in CRTC-designated mandatory marketstransitioned from analogue to digital broadcasts. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 23. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display CIVI-DT's virtual channel as its analogue-era UHF channel 53, which was among the high band UHF channels that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.
