"Unfox My Cable Box" NOW!

[FBaggins]

1. This badly confuses how such decisions are made

They correctly point out that Fox News gets the second-largest share of subscriber fees, but they ignore the fact that the largest share by far (ESPN at 3-4 times as much) has fewer viewers.

But the real confusion is the notion that we are paying these fees even if we don't watch the channel... and thus we have some leverage to get the cable companies to pay them less (or even drop the channel).

But that isn't how it works. Both channels benefit from the fact that millions of subscribers are only willing to pay for cable at all because they're effectively a captive audience. There are comparatively few subscribers who will drop the service if NatGeo goes away... or the 12th Nickelodian channel... or even the big names like HBO (because you can stream it just as easily). But live news and live sports are the raison d'etre of cable.

Then there's the fact that most cable companies (if not all) have their own news networks now. Dropping a competitor could cause regulatory/legal issues.

The way to damage Fos hasn't changed. Don't watch it. The size of their audience does impact their revenue. But don't think that those of us who don't watch it have much leverage to convince cable companies to take it from those who do watch it.