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On June 17, 1985, The Discovery Channel was launched with $5 million in start-up capital from several investors (including BBC, Allen & Company and Venture America). 

It was initially available to 156,000 households and broadcasted for 12 hours between 3 p.m. and 3 a.m. About 75 percent of its content had never before aired on U.S. TV. John Hendricks founded the channel and its parent company, Cable Educational Network Inc., in 1982.

In its early years, the channel broadcast some Soviet programming, including the news program Rama In 1988, the channel premiered the nightly program World Monitor (produced by The Christian Science Monitor). 

The first Shark Week occurred in 1988 and has since returned annually. By 1990, the channel was available in over 50 million households.