Popular Record Labels infact earn money thru chs by licensing content, in radio this is calculated on basis of how many times particular song gets played in a day and on tv maybe it will some other type of system. The kind of promoted content for which ch is paid usually comes from smaller labels or independent artists but i know that Vh1 even airs independent stuff voluntarily just to give artists a platform.
9XO had all things done well ... Right from content, packaging, presentation etc but found it difficult to have proper distribution bcoz of various reasons .... I can say quite surely that smaller broadcasters specially having niche chs find it challenging to compete with rival big networks. 9X should tie up with Star/Disney to get wider reach, they cannot with Indiacast bcoz it will b clubbed with rival and it will b difficult to first strike an agreement or be assured to get better results
About Tata Sky issue, well it is not Q of arriving at decision abt carriage fee but bigger thing is operator can straight away decline carrying the ch and broadcaster cannot force them. NTO bringing price bal is not the answer to latter
Anyways wait 9XO will b back, they have just suspsnded services for limited duration is what i sense