Ahlulbayt Television Network is the first and on exclusively English-language Shia Islamic television channel. The channel was launched with much fanfare on Sky in the UK in August 2009 and two months later on the Galaxy 19 platform covering North America from its London headquarters. A few months into its operations it also expanded to Atlantic Bird 4A (Nilesat) which covers the Middle East and North Africa. Australian broadcaster IMTV signed an exclusive distribution contract in June 2010, and broadcasting of the channel commenced on the 10th of JULY 2010 on Intelsat 8 12575 MHZ in MPEG2 and FTA covering the ANZ region. However IMTV announced their plans to encrypt the channel and upgrade to H.264 broadcasting mid August. The channel will be included in a package to be announced at a later date.

The nonprofit religious channel, whose name is Arabic for the 'Holy Household', referring to the holy progeny of the Prophet Muhammad, is staffed by British and American professionals from many different backgrounds. In an interview in 2004 with an online Kuwaiti magazine, Sayed Mahdi al-Modarresi, the channel's founder had announced plans to launch the channel to "show the true, undistorted nature of Islam and Islamic civilization to the West".