The Discovery Channel was riding the crest of that growth—and even promoting it. Consumer research had uncovered the fact that Discovery, along with American Movie Classics (AMC), was driving cable penetration into the homes of “cable holdouts.” Cable had passed by these homes for years, but their residents had refused to subscribe. Typically they were light TV viewers and were simply not interested in any more television—until Discovery and AMC came along. Distribution of cable networks also accelerated once cable operators were liberated in January 1987 from the constraints of rate
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