Abstract: An automated method and system for identifying broadcast programs wherein a pattern recognition process is combined with a signalling event which acts as a trigger signal. At least one such trigger, or "cue" signal, occurs with each broadcast of every program which is to be identified; and these signals are used to activate the pattern recognition process which results in program identification. These cue signals can either be artificially inserted into the program signal or they can be events which occur naturally as part of normal broadcast procedures. A segment of each program at a predetermined location with respect to one of these cue signals is sampled and processed according to a feature extraction algorithm to form the program's reference signature, which is stored in computer memory.