| Callsign: | CBHT-DT |
| Branding: | CBC Nova Scotia |
| Digital: | 32 (UHF) |
| Virtual: | 3 |
| Affiliations: | CBC Television |
| Location: | Halifax, Nova Scotia |
| Country: | Canada |
| Callsign Meaning: | CBC Halifax Television |
| Former Callsigns: | CBHT (1954–2011) |
| Owner: | Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |
| Sister Stations: | CBH-FM, CBHA-FM, CBAFT-DT |
| Erp: | 82.62 kW |
| Haat: | 2610NaN0 |
| Coordinates: | 44.6508°N -63.6569°W |
| Licensing Authority: | CRTC |
CBHT-DT (channel 3) is a CBC Television station in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The station's studios are located on Chebucto Road in Halifax, and its transmitter is located on Washmill Lake Drive (near Bently Drive) on the city's west side.
CBHT-DT serves as CBC's Atlantic Time Zone flagship station. The station broadcasts the network's schedule in local time, except during live events.[1] CBHT also became Cape Breton Island's CBC station, when CBIT-TV was closed in 2012 as part of the CBC's digital transition.
CBHT started broadcasting on December 20, 1954, using temporary studios at College Street School. In October 1956, CBHT moved into a brand-new 57,000-square-foot facility on Bell Road. It entered CBC's microwave network in 1958, and began colour programming in 1966. CBHT eventually covered all of Nova Scotia with rebroadcast transmitters. The tower in the Halifax area on Geizer's Hill (called the CBC tower) is also used by CTV's CJCH-TV, Global's CIHF-TV, most local FM broadcast radio stations and other services. On August 31, 2011, the transition to digital terrestrial over-the-air broadcasting was complete when the station's analog transmitter was permanently shut down, ceasing broadcasts on analog VHF channel 3, and began broadcasting on digital UHF channel 39 (virtual 3.1).[2]
In November 2014, CBHT moved to a new 440000NaN0 facility on Chebucto Road in Halifax, located inside a former Hudson's Bay department store, joined by CBC's Halifax radio stations, which had previously been located in the CBC Radio Building.[3] Originally, plans called for the new facility to completely replace the larger Bell Road studios, which were to close at the end of the 2014–15 television season. Despite this, Studio 1 at Bell Road remained in operation for some time, accommodating productions which were too complex to be produced at Chebucto Road, particularly This Hour Has 22 Minutes. The Bell Road Studio building was finally demolished in November 2020 as part of the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre redevelopment project.[4]
On September 26, 1972, CBHT began broadcast operations for a branch station in Sydney, covering all of Cape Breton Island, and parts of eastern Nova Scotia, called CBIT-TV; its call sign meant "Cape Breton Island Television". It was forced to start operating the new station when CHUM Limited purchased the original local station CJCB-TV, the first television station in Nova Scotia, and switched its affiliation to the CTV Television Network on that date.[5] CBIT broadcast on terrestrial channel 5 and local cable channel 3.[6] CBIT had its own newscast (called Cape Breton Report) until 1990, when it was cancelled and replaced with CBHT's First Edition. Since then, CBIT was CBHT's full-time repeater station in that market. As part of the CBC's transition to digital transmission, CBIT was shut down on July 31, 2012 — along with the rest of CBHT's repeaters — resulting in CBC Television abandoning over-the-air service in those markets.
The station has been responsible for the production of numerous regional and national programs, including the long-running This Hour Has 22 Minutes (1992–present). Other national programs produced at CBHT have included Don Messer's Jubilee, Singalong Jubilee, Countrytime, Take Time With Noel Harrison, Street Cents, and . Notable regional programs have included Switchback, and Land and Sea.
News programming has been a major component of the station's efforts since its founding. CBHT airs a 60-minute Nova Scotia newscast each weekday starting at 6:00 p.m. In addition, it airs regional (includes Cape Breton, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland & Labrador) newscasts at 11 o'clock on weeknights and Sundays, and at 7 o'clock on Saturday evenings.
In 2000, its local newscast, First Edition, was cancelled and replaced with Canada Now, anchored in Halifax by Norma Lee MacLeod. The latest version of the newscast for Nova Scotia is called CBC Nova Scotia News, hosted by Tom Murphy, Amy Smith and Ryan Snoddon.
CBHT had over 30 analog television rebroadcasters in several Nova Scotian communities such as Sydney and Truro. Due to federal funding reductions to the CBC, in April 2012, the CBC responded with substantial budget cuts, which included shutting down CBC's and Radio-Canada's remaining analog transmitters on July 31, 2012.[7] None of CBC or Radio-Canada's television rebroadcasters were converted to digital.
As a result of the closedown of the repeater network, some cable systems in Newfoundland and Labrador owned by Eastlink replaced the province's regional CBC outlet, CBNT-DT, with CBHT, due to what Eastlink claimed were "technical issues" involving CBNT.[8]