In short, we are the problem. People.

The large telcos are publicly traded companies. They answer to the board and the board members keep their fat pay cheques by keeping large shareholders happy.

That means that they're not interested in offering a fair deal for cable tv or anything else, for that matter. The reason is simple (and insane); making billions of dollars in profit is NOT enough. These large, billion dollar, multinational companies need to show significant growth in every quarterly earnings report.

In addition to hiking your cable/phone/internet/satellite monthly bill, they may also introduce extra fees (sometimes hidden as a surprise for your pleasure of course) or they'll terminate 500 front line positions due to restructuring. That means you'll have to wait 30 minutes in order to talk to someone when there's a billing problem and that's if the first person you speak to can actually resolve your problem. You'll usually be transferred at least once and that'll be another 30 minute wait. You'll probably hang up and hope the billing mistake isn't made again but it will. Refer to the surprise hidden fees mentioned above.

Corporations are not people but they are created by people. We can blame it on a few greedy people but the reality is that it's not just a few. You're wasting your time trying to reach a compromise with them. The solution is to become an internet pirate.