I think it has actually happened.
I recall having recommended DirecTV to my Aunt, who resides in a separate state, and she took my suggestion and made the decision to go ahead and sign up in December 2004. She started receiving her DirecTV service the next month, January 2005, and my having referred her was a benefit to us both. (In between she was making the segue to drop cable for DirecTV.)
Back then we did not have HD service, and the subscription cost for "Total Choice Plus" (with locals) was in mid- or upper-$40s. Key reason she made the move was because her area cable provider (with no other cable company competitor) was rather antiquated. For example, it did not even update its community with fiber optics for cable-ready TV channels in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. And in comparing what she was paying -- with not even receiving, say, Turner Classic Movies or The History Channel (both of which I had through my then-cable provider's fiber optics upgrade as far back as 1997) -- there was no reason, other than a general feeling of unfamiliarity, to not go with a satellite provider.
Now we get to pay about, I think, $66 for the legacy equivalent of "Total Choice Plus" (this is before any premium movies; we've both been most consistent with HBO). But the cable operators in her area and mine are in the $70s, having folded in much of the HD Extra Pack programming.
It's been seven years since she signed up. I've been with DirecTV for seven years beyond that. It's 14 for me; 7 for her. And it's amazing how, in less than a full decade, that pretty basic in a non-premiums programming package actually increased to that 50%.
I do not want to pay $99, within the next decade, for a package of non-premium channels. So let us not get carried away, in discussion over HD programming, a willingness to pay an additional 50 percent for our subcription
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: E! come on! whats next TV Guide channel 
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