I guess they figured they had the stronger hand. In recent months, the tensions over rates have been getting more pronounced throughout the entire region. When you need to cut, it's a place to cut. You should never alienate your largest provider. You can't assume the subscriber doesn't know what's happening, doesn't have a certain expectation.
Programming is very important to consumers.
They don't sign up to get cable wire, they want channels. It's perhaps natural to attribute much of the current friction to the aftermath of consolidation. When there were thousands of operators, you won a few and you lost a few, but it was more of a level playing field. Now I think the leverage can be turned against you-fewer doesn't translate into easier transactions. You can't have a system with wires and nothing on, also you can't have the best programming in the world and no distribution.