Yeah, they rely on rate increases to fuel profit growth.... That explains why my cable bill went from $110 to nearly $200 in the past few years for 400 channels, 380 of which I never watch (but have to pay for anyway since they won't sell channels ala carte). I especially love it when someone like Fox or some sports channel makes high demands (I don't watch sports at all). Take all those crappy home shopping channels, all those wacky religious channels, all those propaganda right-wing (Blaze) type channels and FLUSH THEM DOWN THE TOILET WHERE THEY BELONG!
If I could just pay for the channels I actually watch, my cable bill could be half what it is now (probably lower, but I'd be willing to pay more per channel to get rid of all the crap channels). Meanwhile, I do enjoy watching old game shows at my mother's house when I visit (i.e. She has GSN or Game Show Network). It's on my cable listing, but I don't have access to it. I called my cable company and they said it and like 4 other channels I have ZERO interest in are in another "package" for $8 more a month. I'm not paying another $8 a month for ONE channel that shows mostly re-runs of old game shows. I told them take all those home shopping channels and sports channels off my current listing (that would be like 20 channels) and give me that ONE channel I'd rather watch. "Sorry, it doesn't work that way. You have to take the crap we're pooping!" And THAT is why we need someone like Apple to get us true ala carte programming. I'm tired of paying for crap I DON'T watch. And then you have the "torrents are stealing" crowd that has a fit if someone downloads a TV show they missed on the cable they paid for but didn't get to see for whatever reason. How is that not the networks and cable providers "stealing" my money for programming I never see (because you can't watch 24/7 or 400 channels at once, but you still have to pay for them)? Yeah, the grass is only greener on the Corporate side of the pasture and that's because they're always dumping bullcrap on it.
Learn one thing early, kids. Life isn't remotely "fair". Whatever you think "justice" is, the Earth is not. And THAT is why the partisan divisions just keep getting wider and wider and wider. People are sick of being taken advantage of and the system is rigged for the 1%, not the 99% and then the 1% tell us to bend over because here it comes again. But you can't really "fix" it because the 1% (crazy as some are) still only really serve the 1%. If Apple ever gets what they want, you'll still be paying through the nose for it (and getting less overall, even if you didn't watch it) because that's just the way it is. Someone has to pay for all those bad TV Shows they make that are total flops and it's not going to be the idiots that made them. No, the consumer gets shafted every time. The government wastes your money and then they cut your benefits and raise your taxes when they shouldn't have been touching that money in the first place for other spending. TV Networks make incredibly dumb shows by hack writers and then raise their asking rate every year anyway and cable and satellite providers agree to the increases and then pass those increases on to you as well. Meanwhile, you still are bombarded with commercials for 10-14 minutes of the 30 the show is supposed to last. Movies are shown edited for "time" and "content" (they even strip frames out which makes the motion choppier looking, but gives them an additional 2-4 minutes of ad time per hour!) and yet a movie still often lasts 2.5-3 hours long because they have so many damn commercials added to them and yet I still get to pay close to $200 a month to watch those shows and movies filled with commercials so they get profit from both directions! (once upon a time cable like digital radio was promoted as being ad-free since over-the-air television was paid for by commercials but then they realized double-dipping was more profitable yet). It's ridiculous.
What can you do about it? Bend over, that's what or just top watching TV. After all, social media (Facebook) has been so good for society. Lots of kids wandering around that think the Earth revolves around their life. News? Who cares. It's all about what I'm doing right now on my Twitter feed!
Yeah, I miss the 1980s. Sure arcades ate your quarters, but you could at least improve your skills and still get out of the house to play video games. There were fewer television stations to watch, but the programming was higher quality because the ad revenue was higher per channel and so ads didn't last as long either. I don't recall the Earth feeling quite as dangerous (as crazy people couldn't get together online worldwide to conspire so it was more limited to smaller regions on the other side of the Earth) and every shooting anywhere on Earth wasn't reported for the sensationalism that drives groups into a crazed frenzy. Fox News and MS-NBC didn't exist back then and that alone would be worth powering up the DeLorean for a trip back IMO (the music was better too and MTV actually showed music videos!).
