Due to the fact that Chicago was one of the last major U.S. cities where cable television was still not widely available, SportsVision initially operated as an over-the-air subscription service.

Viewers were required to purchase a set-top converter and pay a monthly fee to view the telecasts, which included Bulls, White Sox, and Blackhawks games, as well as college sports events of local interest.

[4] The decision to move most of the White Sox broadcasts to paid television led longtime announcer Harry Caray to become the play-by-play voice of the rival Chicago Cubs.

[5] Chicago was, until 2019, one of the very few television markets in the United States whose baseball teams made a substantial percentage of their games available over-the-air.

The WPWR-SportsVision partnership struggled by late 1983 and as a result, the channel was sold to Cablevision and the Washington Post (which by this time had become a partner in SportsChannel).

[8] Also that year, Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) purchased a 25% share in SportsChannel Chicago, with the remaining 75% split evenly between Cablevision and NBC.

[10][11] Following the purchase, SportsChannel Chicago abruptly canceled its daily sports news program The SportsChannel Report on August 10, resulting in the layoffs of ten staff members (including the program's veteran anchors Jim Blaney, Steve Kashul and Dyrol Joyner).

In December 2003, Reinsdorf, Bill Wirtz and the Tribune Company—the owners of the Bulls, White Sox, Blackhawks and Cubs respectively—decided to end their cable television agreement with FSN Chicago.

[15][16] The move led many cable and satellite providers in northeastern Illinois and northwest Indiana to drop FSN Chicago.

The events from some minor local and semi-professional teams and Midwestern outdoors programs had limited interest to Chicago area viewers.