You've seen them, those "programs" that are nothing but long, long commercials that preempt actual programming on regular channels.
Well I pay for cable so I am explicitly paying for these lame commercials.
That's like paying to read ads in a magazine (oh wait). And its wrong. I want my cable company to pay me for watching these stupid things and maybe I would watch them. Probably not but it galls me that they sell the time to air these things when I'm paying them for access to the station.
Its a great sales deal for the station, they make money both ways. But its wrong and needs to stop. You want to sell my paid-for cable access to the station? Them reimburse for those hours. Otherwise, quit preempting real programming for this bullshit programming.