The company was formed in 1984 as Labatt Communications, Inc. by brewer John Labatt Ltd.; but long after its acquistion by Interbrew in 1995, LCI was sold to four local investors and ESPN Inc. in 1996 which changed the name of the company to NetStar Communications Inc. NetStar was then acquired by CTV Inc. in 2000 and later merged with Bell Canada alongside The Globe and Mail to form Bell Globemedia and renamed to its current entity afterwards.

Its French counterpart, Réseau des sports (RDS) went on the air five years later.

The company also operated and established Viewers Choice and SkyVision Entertainment, both founded in 1991.

In 1995, when Belgian brewer Interbrew announced it purchased John Labbatt, a consortium of four Canadian investors—Stephen Bronfman (22.5%), the Caisse (22.5%), Reitmans (16.5%), and senior management (6.5%)—along with ESPN (32%), took over the company.

[2] The sale was approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on March 15, 1996 and the company was rebranded to NetStar Communications Inc.[3] After a takeover attempt by CanWest Global that was vetoed by ESPN, CTV Inc. (the former Baton Broadcasting Inc.) announced a friendly bid to take over NetStar Communications in early 1999, with CRTC approval on March 24, 2000.