I'm not a big poster, but had relate my DirecTV experience.
I've been a subscriber since '97, but only use DTV for Sunday Ticket. I also suspend the service for 6 months in the summer to save $180. I started complaining in ~2009 when the prices went into the $300 range. each year I tell them the cost is too high and I want to cancel DTV completely, so they reduce the price by half. I made my annual call last night and It turns out they already had me down for the Ticket at 4 payments of $40. And, they threw in the NFL Ticket Max feature at no charge.