Targeted at a family audience, the channel focused primarily on theatrically released motion pictures, along with travel interstitials that aired between select films.

Originally owned by Diversified Communications, the service was later sold off a majority share to Westinghouse Broadcasting in 1980.

The channel boasted a policy of not running R-rated feature films (predating the launch of family-oriented multiplex services by HBO and Showtime that also omitted R-rated films from their schedules), and marketed itself as a lower-priced alternative to HBO, Cinemax, Showtime (which Group W later owned in part, making HTN a de facto sister network to Showtime from 1982, when it acquired TelePrompTer Corporation, to 1983) and The Movie Channel.

[2] From 1984 to 1985, Home Theater Network aired a live 90-minute call-in trivia program called Movie Talk America, in a Thursday primetime timeslot that was typically used to broadcast feature films.

In October 1986, Group W Satellite Communications announced that it would shut down the network, citing a lack of subscriber growth despite a positive cash flow.