The channel was first announced on 28 October 2015, and began broadcasting on 26 November 2015 in metropolitan areas on channel 94. 9Life replaced the main broadcast of
datacasting channel
Extra, which was moved to channel 95 to replace its
timeshift channel
Extra 2. Nine’s owned and operated station
NBN announced on 16 February 2016 on their website that they would carry 9Life from 1 March 2016 on channel 84. Regional affiliate
WIN Television announced on 10 February 2016 it would launch 9Life in the coming months. It was later confirmed the channel would launch on 1 March 2016 on channel 84. Four WIN regions were excluded from the 1 March launch date.
Griffith,
Tasmania, and
Eastern South Australia did not receive the channel until 2 March 2016 due to technical issues. In addition, the
Regional WA station did not launch the channel until 10 March 2016. On 29 April 2016, Nine announced that it had signed a new affiliation deal with Southern Cross Austereo, dumping WIN Television as its primary affiliate starting 1 July 2016. Upon the switchover, 9Life became unavailable as WIN ceased broadcasting it and Southern Cross did not have the technical equipment to broadcast the channel. Three months later, the channel recommenced broadcasting in the Regional Queensland, Southern NSW/ACT and Regional Victoria markets on channel 54 on 17 July 2016. This left Regional WA, Tasmania, Mildura and Griffith without the service. In 2017, 9Life began broadcasting in Darwin via Nine's O&O station,
NTD. On 30 September 2018, 9Life recommenced broadcasting to Tasmania, this time via
TDT Tasmania, and it became available to the Spencer Gulf/Broken Hill region (via
GTS/BKN) for the first time. On 12 March 2021, Nine announced that it would return to
WIN Television as its regional affiliate in most markets beginning on 1 July 2021, in a deal that will last at least seven years. From 1 August 2021, 9Life is available in regional areas via WIN Television on channel 83, in which it replaced the
Sky News on WIN channel. This returned the channel to Regional WA, Mildura and Griffith after an absence of five years. ==Programming==