Let me tell a tale:
I've been with my fiance for ~10 years now. We've had Comcast for ~8 of the ten years. We had a "full" internet/cable package for ~6 of those 8 years.
Every year - like clockwork - she would get a bill after the "year" intro period and the price would go up. I'm not sure of the numbers but from ~100 to ~150 or somewhere in there.
Why like clockwork? Because every year she would call and say "cancel the package... oh? you'll extend it? AND add another pay channel bundle? Okay... talk to you next year".
With each year it got harder and she had to fight longer - sometimes through multiple calls. When it got escalated to cancellation managers they would inevitably change their minds.
It finally got to the point last year that we actually canceled everything except for the ABSOLUTE basic cable. No HD. Only half of the channels (no MTV, HGTV, etc).
The reality is simple: It's them or... dialup? Satellite? couple other crappy options. The joy of "monopolies". They know that people who want channels MUST go through them.
Thankfully Netflix, Amazon Prime,... plex :) have picked up the slack so we actually aren't bother much by the loss of HBO and the like...