The idea is you charge a high price for other channels to show it immediately, but drop the price later on so that you can still get some revenue from channels that can't afford the initial price.

That's why NetFlix was greeted with open arms by the TV networks at first - because they could make money from their shows that are sitting in their library that they weren't selling on DVD and syndicators weren't interested in. Now that NetFlix is as huge aas it is the networks are getting greedy and want to grab the whole cookie back again thinking consumers will pay first-run rates for third-run content.