Is there a way to prevent downloads of purchased items to iTunes? Is there a way to indicate that I do not want a given item to ever be downloaded to iTunes, but prefer to have it remain in the cloud?

For example, if I purchase a TV show or movie, iTunes assumes I want it downloaded to my machine, and will attempt to do so several times, even when I cancel the download and delete it from the downloads list. In general, after several tries, iTunes seems to finally give up, but it's hardly a convenient process convincing it to do so. This the issue repeats (automatically) with purchased TV series.
Open iTunes
Click iTunes Store
Go to the iTunes Store Home
On the right column is the text "Purchased" with a little bubble that says (new). Click "Purchased"
Find the show that you don't want.
Click it and then a window should pop up containing the show
There should be an (X) next to the show. Click That
iTunes will ask you whether you want to make the show hidden. You do.
Repeat for all other shows.