......they are not liable. If lightning strikes the pole outside, that's considered an 'act of nature' - nothing they can do to prevent it. Same thing would be true if the lightning travelled down your electric wires and blew up your TV/Computer(s)/etc, or hit the telephone wire and blew up all your phones.

For this reason, many UPS units, and slightly more expensive surge protectors (electrical) now include surge protection outlets for telephone lines - and ones intended for home theater include co-ax connectors for cable/satellite.