The article said:
" As for the rate increases DirecTV says are at the heart of this dispute, there is a "zero total dollar increase" on the table from Versus. In other words, if subscriptions continue to grow, the amount of money DirecTV will pay Versus will not. According to the network, this proposal was presented in the negotiation several days ago and DirecTV hasn't responded to it -- despite continuing to claim in recent media reports that Versus is trying to "jack up our rates.""
The "in other words" part of that says that if subscriptions grow, the money DirecTV has to pay won't. It doesn't say that the initial amount they have to pay to continue carrying Versus is not going up.
In other words, if they paid $1/customer for a total of $16M last year, Comcast could still be saying, "Pay us $1.20/customer, for a total of $19.2M, but if you get more customers 6 months from now, you won't have to pay us any more."