The traditional approach to the building of a CATV system is to erect an antenna at a convenient location and distribute from the antenna location to all of the subscribers the received channels by means of an all-band cable system. As CATV penetrates the larger cities and as bi-directional transmission of signals becomes a reality, the trend is toward the segmentation of systems into areas served from separate hubs connected by various types of cable or microwave links. Within this new approach are contained so many alternatives for types of hubs, connecting links and combinations of forward and return systems that system planning has become a task of bewildering complexity involving the owner's objectives and the relative costs of various methods of implementation. This paper analyzes the general problem and describes a computer program developed as a tool to permit analysis of the system planning problem. The analysis permits a recommended solution to be found by the computer given the objectives, costs and general physical data of the geographical area or permits an analysis of preferred methods of system configuration. The analysis involves the use of a new family of mathematical operators developed by the author, called "COM" operators, which simplifies some of the mathematical problems involved.