The network was launched on June 1, 1994, as a joint venture between the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Power Corporation of Canada along with sister channel Trio. It aired much of the same programming as the CBC-owned Canadian cable news channel CBC Newsworld. During the late 1990s, Newsworld International's Sunday evening newscast at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time aired on CBC-owned CBET in Windsor, Ontario as a replacement for the ABC family movie anthology series "The Wonderful World of Disney", which aired on most other CBC stations in that timeslot (Windsor is part of the Detroit market for programming purposes, as such, stations in Southwestern Ontario near the U.S.–Canada border pre-empt certain U.S.-based programs whose rights are held by Canadian networks to avoid paying higher advertising rates).