Last month, I provided definitions for a number of basic cable industry phrases, terms, abbreviations and acronyms.
Most cable systems provide a variety of services, but their bread and butter is basic cable.
Extended or expanded basic service is a tier, or group of channels in addition to basic cable for which the system charges extra. The extended basic channel lineup will vary from cable company to cable company, but may include services such as ESPN-2 and Disney Channel. Premium services usually are sold on a per-channel basis, and include Home Box Office, Showtime and others. It s not unusual for cable companies to offer several kinds of programming packages that combine various available channels in a variety of service tiers. When a cable operator wants to add more TV channels and other services, a typical limiting factor is available network bandwidth.