It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside Victoria-based CTV 2 station CIVI-DT (channel 53).

CIVT went on the air in 1997 as the first new Vancouver TV station in 21 years after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission selected the application of Baton Broadcasting from among five bids.

In a July 1996 column, Robert Mason Lee of The Globe and Mail noted that BCTV had the "dangerous arrogance of a local-news gorilla", called CBUT's news product "wholesome" but noted that the local CBC station "has neither the money nor the authority to produce local television", and labeled CKVU as "deplorable", "paving the road to hell", and "cheap and undeserving of Vancouver".

[3] There was also a decided sentiment in the growing British Columbia film and television production community that there were no decision-making entities in Vancouver.

Producers in British Columbia derided the "$1,500 cup of coffee"—the meetings, complete with airfare, that Vancouver creatives had to make with Toronto leaders to get approval for their proposals.

In line with the commission's usual practice, the CRTC issued a general call for applications in March 1996, with a public hearing that September.

The prospective Rogers station was denied largely because it would have replaced some of Talentvision's existing ethnic programming with U.S. syndicated fare.

[11][13] The decision was met with mixed reception in the entertainment community; Baton's large commitment to Canadian programming won praise from the production industry, but others had generally backed the CHUM application,[2][4] and several people wished the CRTC had awarded multiple stations.

[19] Occupancy of the Robson and Burrard studios, which were designed by Vancouver firm James Cheng Architects,[20] was granted with only a week to go until launch,[21] with delays owing to waivers needed to place satellite dishes on the heritage building's roof and a strike of city workers that delayed permitting.

[28] CIVT, branded as Vancouver Television (VTV), began broadcasting on September 22, 1997; the channel had changed from 42 to 32 prior to launch.

[29] The station's local programs at launch included a two-hour morning show, Vancouver Breakfast, and Vancouver Live newscasts at noon, 6 p.m., and 11 p.m., as well as Gabereau Live!, a talk show hosted by former local CBC radio personality Vicki Gabereau, and several weekly news and political satire programs, including former CBC Radio staple Double Exposure.

[29] Vancouver Breakfast, hosted by Aamer Haleem, Linda Freeman, and radio DJ Ted Schredd, featured a set adorned with chairs and props shaped like strawberries, bacon, and eggs;[30] Alex Strachan of The Vancouver Sun called it "an alarm clock that wouldn't stop ringing".

Daryl Duke, an influential Vancouver film director who had previously founded CKVU in 1976 and who had backed the Baton–Electrohome bid because he felt it granted the most local control of any of the five original proposals, resigned in October.

He claimed the station's advisory board was a legal fiction due to changes in company composition and that he was a "director of hot air".

Murray criticized VTV as a clone of Citytv where original Canadian shows were consigned to "schedule ghettos" in less-viewed dayparts, and a disillusioned Duke noted that "everything they do locally is noisy pursuit of raucous trivia".

Despite ratings that trailed even the CBC, a longtime laggard for the Vancouver news audience,[40] Vancouver Live at 6 was named Canada's best newscast by the Radio-Television News Directors Association, and the twelve Gemini Awards nominations for VTV programs exceeded the combined total of some other station groups.

[44] Some turnover among news reporters and anchors marked promotions; for instance, Satinder Bindra left VTV to join CNN.

[45] News anchor Paul Mennier left for A-Channel Edmonton, in part because of disgust with the continued low ratings; Mi-Jung Lee served as his replacement.

[50] That decision—which set up an affiliation switch to take place in 2001, postponed a year at the CRTC's direction[51]—was immediately understood as making CIVT the new CTV station in British Columbia.

[61][62] After the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, portions of CTV's set in the International Broadcast Centre were repurposed to refresh CIVT's newsroom.