lol I thought this type of thing was only a petty/greedy US media market occurrence. Guess not. There's always a carriage agreement issue here now.
The HD version of Channel 4, one of the UKs biggest channels has been off freesat for months now due to freesat trying to cut fees.
Looks like the move to online viewing is putting a squeeze on income and the beancounters are trying to find a way to stop it looking like their business are in decline, which would cause a stock market drop.
Expect to see more of this over the next few years and some channels dying off entirely.
This isn't just about live channels, virgin media want access to the BBC back catalogue of programs like "fawlty towers" etc for their on demand as they feel if Netflix can get it then they should have access as well.
This doesn't affect IPTV - these channels are available in the UK from plenty of other sources.