Tele-Communications Inc.
VISN was founded in late 1987 by the National Interfaith Cable Coalition (NICC). The NICC was an interfaith foundation created to provide programming and guidance to VISN. Many of the initial members of the NICC were also members of the National Council of Churches, whose membership had experienced trouble keeping airtime for local religious programming following media deregulation in the 1980s. Startup costs for VISN were covered by several cable providers; spearheaded by Tele-Communications Inc., early financial backers of the channel included American Television &amp; Communications, United Cable, Jones Intercable, Post-Newsweek Cable and Heritage Communications. The network was owned by the NICC and Liberty Media, a subsidiary of Tele-Communications Inc. Although the network was advertiser-supported, it disallowed on-air solicitation during its programming.