The CableACE Award (earlier known as the ACE Awards; ACE was an acronym for Award for Cablecasting Excellence) was an award that was given from 1978 to 1997 to honor excellence in American cable television programming. It was originally created to serve as a cable television counterpart to the Emmy Award, which did not recognize cable programming prior to the 1987-88 season. Once the National Cable Television Association was satisfied the Emmys were acknowledging the contributions of cable shows enough, they discontinued the honor in 1997.