SPN was created by Ed Taylor, an associate of Ted Turner and the head of the Southern Satellite Systems company.

Among the programs broadcast on SPN were Video Concert Hall, an early music video show (before the launch of MTV); News from Home, a program for Canadians in the US, hosted by early CNN news anchor Don Miller; The Shopping Game, a Nicholson-Muir game show produced in Nashville and hosted by Art James; The Susan Noon Show, featuring celebrity interviews; Nutrition Dialogue, hosted by Dr. Betty Kamen; Sewing with Nancy; The Paul Ryan Show, another celebrity interview program with the actor/interviewer of the same name; and Moscow Meridian, a current-affairs program produced by Soviet authorities and hosted by Vladimir Posner.

[4][5] Tempo Television was a 24-hour national cable network serving all contiguous states, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

Market studies clearly indicated that this unique programming approach attracted and retained upscale audiences who were looking for entertainment that was informative and substantially different from the standard options.

[citation needed] A Canadian regulatory description of the channel in 1988 said that Tempo's "schedule consists of outdoors, travel, general information and entertainment programming and classic feature films that are in the public domain.