Prime time was when WNDU became Wood TV on Adelphia cable now Comcast from 8PM to 11PM in the 90's but there was no syndex it wasn't blacked out. Had WNDU & WSBT out of South Bend, WSYM Fox47 from Lansing, WWOR in NYC was taken off on New Year's Eve in 1994, WGN everyone in the midwest had WGN Superstation. I was surprised that Adelphia cable didn't have WKBD out of Detroit which was Michigan's superstation in the 80's & 90's Cablevision had it on channel 10 I think in 93 or 94 they may have gotten rid of it.
I think I remember Time Warner Cable was in a dispute with Hearst for a couple of weeks in the summer of 2012 and took some out of market TV stations which whoever owned the TV station went to court to try and make TWC not to air the channels the courts never ruled when a deal was reached with TWC & Hearst. TWC took the out of market TV stations off and the owners dropped the lawsuit. I believe that Pay TV should get out of market TV when a dispute happens with the local ABC where I live isn't a problem as there is 2 ABC's so if one goes dark you can watch either WOTV or WZZM, NBC, CBS or Fox should get one from South Bend or Lansing since those are the 2 closes markets for Charter Spectrum & Comcast.