​Higher costs for TV programming may make those little spats between pay-TV providers and media companies more than just bargaining tactics, as cable and satellite companies opt to drop channels permanently.

Suddenlink Communications’ recent decision to erase Viacom offerings from its lineup opened up a new front in the perennial war over retrans fees: the permanent blackout.

Suddenlink says it has no intention of bringing Viacom back online, and now, according to Variety, other companies may follow suit.

Among the possibilities cited: Dish’s tiff with Turner turning into a permanent parting of ways, and DirecTV bidding ‘adieu’ to AMC.

“When we take something down, we’re prepared as a company to leave it down forever,” Dish’s chairman Charlie Ergen said regarding the decision to drop CNN, Cartoon Network, and six other Turner offerings.

Ergen said Dish had a responsibility to its shareholders not to “do stupid deals.”

Most analysts still see this as dealmaking brinksmanship, with one telling Variety “it’s more of the same.”

Some see the new blackouts as a way of extracting OTT concessions from the media companies.

That theory will be put to the test when Dish and CBS hit the negotiation table at the end of November; that’s when The Eye’s deal is up with the satellite provider.

Read More: Variety

Brief Take: As customers continue to balk at higher bills, look for these fights over cost to continue between distributors and content providers.

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