Launched on October 1, 1998 as Style Network, a spin-off of E!, the channel initially consisted of fashion, design, and urban lifestyle-themed programming.

[2] As Esquire Network, the channel focused on travel, cooking, sports and fashion, and also aired reruns of popular sitcoms and dramas.

Starting around 2008, Style shifted its focus to personality-based reality programing such as Jerseylicious, Tia & Tamera, and Big Rich Texas, along with a female-focused spin-off of The Soup known as The Dish.

"[4][5] In 2013, the channel launched two real estate related shows: Hot Listings: Miami and Built, which featured male models remodeling houses.

In December 2012, NBCUniversal signed a brand licensing deal with the Hearst Corporation, owner of Esquire magazine, to relaunch G4 into Esquire Network, which would air shows aimed at a metrosexual audience about travel, cooking, fashion and other male-targeted programming that is not sports related, including the addition of acquired and archived program content from the NBCUniversal library such as Party Down, Parks and Recreation and week-delayed episodes of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Cable-edited reruns of Sex and the City (a series which took heavy criticism from Esquire magazine during its original run) remained on its schedule until December 2013 (when the rights were shifted to E!

[2] International versions of Style Network continued to exist several years after, as the Esquire brand license was restricted solely to the United States.

[10] The last program to air on Style on September 22, 2013, was an overnight repeat of the Tia & Tamera season finale episode "Twerkin' 9 to 5" (which became its de facto series finale as Tia and Tamera Mowry opted not to continue with the series) at 2 a.m. Eastern Time, with the nightly three-hour paid programming block leading into the Esquire Network launch special after a 30-second abbreviated version of the Style farewell clip aired on the channel space.

for depending on derivative and "copycat" formats of better programming, which was often found on other networks or produced for free consumption independently and uploaded to streaming video providers such as YouTube and Vimeo.

Though it did receive a spin-off as consolation, Team Ninja Warrior, Esquire Network had no other compatible programming to promote it, and it never cracked the top 100 cable shows in any of its first season airings.

[13][14] After the episode ended, a "thank you" slide was shown with the network's web address (which shortly thereafter was turned into a redirect to the main Esquire website).

[15] No further comment was made in regards to the supposed online-only version of the network, and Esquire's "TV" section on their website now contains the general features and behind-the-scenes footage prevalent on most magazine sites.

[22] Style Australia shut down on 17 December 2019 as part of a restructuring of NBCU's Australian operations and a broad re-map of Foxtel's channel lineup.