Two days after dropping all Viacom channels from its lineup, satellite TV provider EchoStar restored them to the air after signing a long-term deal with Viacom. The initial contract talks broke down, leading EchoStar to go nuke-ular as a negotiating tactic; during the outage, EchoStar promised to refund its customers on their monthly cable bills for the missing channels.
All of which underscores, I think, how horrifically stupid our TV distribution infrastructure is becoming. Cable and satellite both lock consumers into long-term deals with providers. When a particular provider changes its lineup in a way consumers don't like, they have no real option other than to get ferociously angry and stew in their own juices as they contemplate the hassle and expense of switching providers. This is no way to run a railroad.
As smart telco scholars have been saying for years, this system violates good separation of layers and proper end-to-end neutrality: the provider of the pipes is in the business of making deals about content. Things aren't as bad as they were when there was just cable: now, at least, consumers can switch at all. But still: if we sent this traffic over general-purpose pipes, consumers would be cutting deals directly with content companies and everyone would be a great deal happier.