USA sports--email today from Cox

I received essentially the same email, which indicates that the removal of USA Network from my package is based solely on my subscription not including sports programming.  As part of my channel subscription, I receive a variety of channels that show sports programming, namely my local NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX affiliates, in addition to channels such as TNT and WGN.  So the idea that I have not subscribed to a channel package that includes sports programming is flatly false.

USA Network shows a variety of content, including movies, sitcoms, dramas, reality, and news, among other things, and there has been no annoucement of any plan to stop doing so.  Although the Cox email indicates that the change is rooted in not subscribing to "sports programming", there is no reason to believe that Cox will stop there.  This change would establish a precedent whereby Cox could remove USA Network from a customer's package unless the customer subscribed to both "sports programming" and "movie programming" (or any other similar combination), with each tier having a separate fee.  This could potentially lead to customers being required to subscribe to dozens of tiers of programming simply to enable reception of just one channel.  Since most other channels also show a variety of content, the precedent that would be set by this change would apply to virtually every channel.  Cox could even go a step further and restrict the time of day a customer could receive the channel based on the type of content being shown.

It is for the reasons stated above that I strongly oppose this change, and am currently exploring legal options to prevent this change.  I encourage everyone else to do the same.  You may not care about sports, and you may not care about USA Network.  You may not even be affected by this change because you currently subscribe to a package that includes what Cox deems "sports programming".  But if this change is allowed to happen, you can be sure that at some point Cox will make another change like this to remove something you do care about, or which you are not subscribed to.