You're right, I dont know very much about the cable system, nor do I care to. I was posting with what I remember from the incident when it was going on. Most of what I said is pretty accurate. There was big financial conflict, not because Dolan and the other heads at Cablevision wanted to give their subscribers a choice, but because they were trying to profit off of the Yankees. Correct, either way, the fan is going to have to pay, but making it a premium channel would allow Cablevision to keep a larger percentage of the money brought in by YES. And regardless of if it were basic or premium, MANY, MANY, and possibly most people in the area would have subscribed.
It has nothing to do with Cablevision trying to be good to their customers, it had to do with the trying to stick YES the year after the Yankees decided to leave MSG. The same thing is going on with the Mets and SNY right now.
I notice you edited a bunch out of this post. Last night when I saw it there was more to it. I had written a long reply, but my computer froze before I was able to post it.