From the beginning Discovery was a “basic” cable service—that is, it was included in the lowest-priced service package sold by cable operators to their customers. If you got basic cable service from these operators, you typically received the Discovery Channel along with CNN, ESPN, MTV, WTBS, and a host of other advertising-supported networks. Other cable networks, like HBO, were “premium” services and therefore carried no advertising to support their programming. These “premium” networks (sometimes called “pay” services) had to rely solely on subscription revenue generated by an extra
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