With the benefit of hindsight, the now resolved dispute between Virgin Media and Sky over carriage fees looks like a silly and rather arrogant little spat that should never have been allowed to happen.
When it broke out, it looked like evidence of an increasingly confident Virgin Media TV willing to bravely take on the Goliath-like Sky. Letters from then Sky chief executive, James Murdoch, were leaked to the press, legal threats were made while stories emerged over how much the loss of the channels was costing each party in ad sales and subscriptions respectively.
However given the more macro-economic and structural problems in the TV market, after dragging on for 18 months the argument was in danger of resembling two balding men fighting over a comb.
Pay-TV is potentially in trouble - evidence has emerged that consumers are considering scrapping pay-TV and turning to free-to-air digital alternatives. With the country poised to be completely digital by 2012, if the recession is as long as some fear then this dispute could have ended up costing both Virgin Media and Sky dearly.
For a full analysis of the challenges of pay-TV versus free-to-air TV platforms, see next week's Marketing.
