 The network was licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in 1996 to a joint venture of Thomson Corporation (50%), Western International Communications (25%) and Cancom (25%).It launched on September 1, 1999 as "Report on Business Television" (although using the abbreviation "ROBTv"), borrowing the name from "The Globe and Mail"s financial section "Report on Business".In 2000, Canwest acquired WIC and its interest in ROBTv.