Introduction
Cable television has presented new challenges to the broadcast rating services. Developed originally in the 1940s (and for years known as CATV, Community Antenna Television), cable was strictly an extension of broadcast station coverage. It provided viewers satisfactory station reception in distant or difficult terrain situations by using strategically positioned antenna arrays and amplifiers and coaxial cable lines to carry the pictures to subscribers. The latter were thus able to receive some or additional TV stations with improved picture quality. By the 1970s, however, CATV had become cable. Growing penetration in some major cities such as San Diego and Buffalo, the expansion in number of channels offered to 37, 50 and beyond, and the emergence of Home Box Office and well financed multiple service operators (MSOS) demonstrated that this was an important new communications medium that went well beyond its CATV beginnings. In 1987, the use of satellites to distribute cable-produced programming nationwide gave HBO, super station WTBS, and Spanish International Network (SIN) a major upward thrust. This quickly brought in new cable networks led by CBN and USA. Meanwhile, major MSOs were battling each other and local aspirants to capture franchises in every U.S. city with over 100,000 populations. This resulted in a phenomenal growth, with 400,000 new subscribers per month being added as 1984 began and industry estimates placing cable penetration at 43 percent of U.S. television households by July 1984.
Cable audience Measurement
Whereas cable operators in the past attempted to position cable as a greatly different medium, superior to broadcast television, subscribers and viewers saw it as simply an extension of television. Going on the cable was much like acquiring an AM-FM receiver when you formerly had only AM: It brought more channels and more choices. (FM once abounded with "narrowcast" classical music stations, but........
