Ideally the end user (us customers) dictate to the cable company what we would like to watch and in turn, the cable companies then dictate to the station what we are willing to pay for.
When I cancelled Dish, they asked why. I replied that I had nothing against the Dish company and that their equipment and services were great. The reason I cancelled was due to the poor program line up, and endless bombardment of advertising including the overlays during the show I am trying to watch.
The only tool us customers have to effect the TV programming is our $$$. If we stop sending it in the direction of the cable companies, then the cable companies will pass the dissatisfaction on to their suppliers (the TV stations). If the stations listen to the cable companies, maybe customers will return and then both the cable and stations will be more successful.
It seems more and more that major companies are taking the "this is the product we are offering - take it or leave it" approach. Well more and more I am leaving it. I do not have to give my $$$ to a company whose focus is increasing profit at the expense of providing the products and services that I am paying for. Example: I was paying for a weather channel whose focus is weather. I was getting another "reality" channel and meaningless programming. I was disappointed when Dish backed down from their confrontation with TWC, lost an amount of respect for Dish and felt that my requirements were not represented. In the end it turned out to be one less station I watched and I cancelled.