adius

Perhaps the "contrast" is also an important element

Incidentally, I would be pretty happy if the Hallmark channel went bankrupt. The invisible hand of the free market demands sacrifice!

Alas, most of their reports on television content are puffery to support their latest argument for a'la carte cable

Maybe this is a derail and I'm missing your overall point, but do you feel like there exists a strong argument against a'la carte cable? Or do you think it's economically viable? Like a lot of people I think it would be awesome but I don't know anything about the economics behind it