Its programming is devoted to featuring primarily documentary films along with documentary-style television series.

Licensed as The Canadian Documentary Channel on November 24, 2000 by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), it was launched as the Documentary Channel on September 7, 2001 under the majority ownership of Corus Entertainment through their YTV Canada Inc. subsidiary (53%), the CBC (29%), the NFB (14%), and the following film producers at 1% each: Omni Film Productions, Cinenova Productions, Barna-Alper Productions, and Galafilm.

Corus decided to sell its interest in the service because it stated documentaries were considered a non-core asset and it wanted to further focus its attention on core assets: kids and family, women's lifestyle, and films.

[2] On June 22, 2007, the CRTC approved the deal and the transaction was completed.

In October 2013, Neil Tabatznik purchased eOne Television's interest (who gained ownership in the channel when it purchased Barna-Alper Productions in January 2008) in the channel.