The ad-free historiy of cable also tells you the future of Netflix and other streaming services. Bait...and switch!
(My wife recently wanted us back on Hulu for Seinfeld, and it was a big factor in our decision to go back that we could turn off the ads, except in a set of shows we don't much care about.)
My understanding of the economics is that $2/month is significantly more than they can hope to make in ads off me, so I'm hoping the money is enough to overcome any residual desire to advertise. (Once the ad addiction is broken, there's good reason to believe it'll stay broken. Nowadays it's easier to get people to just give you a buck rather than shave away pennies at a time through ads. Thirty years ago that wasn't true.)