said by Ben J:You won't miss it. It's staying.
Woah, hold the phone.
I just checked a set top box in VZ VHO1 and he's right, 262 is gone ("channel not available") and it still works on my TiVo in Redmond. I'm not doubting Ben J in the slightest, I'm pleasantly surprised that we kept a channel.
Regarding the Tennis channel, it looks like Comcast requires that subscribers buy the "sports entertainment package" to get several not-premium-but-not-standard channels, including NFL Red Zone and Tennis Channel. A quick spot check shows that Time Warner Cable requires the same thing. That appears to violate media reports that Tennis Channel specifically required that it
not be in such a package, but there you go.
My suspicion is that Verizon chose to eat the increased programming cost as a marketing advantage against Cablevision. CV doesn't carry the Tennis Channel and Verizon appears to be competing most heavily in the New York/New Jersey area (see their astounding pricing that is available only in NYC). Most of Verizon's ads against CV consist of "look at what channel we kept when Cablevision dropped it."