The cable and sat companies should all just stick together. E*, D*, Time Warner, etc..., just get together, come up with a price that they are going to pay for a channel, and set it at that. They could start putting the squeeze on the networks.
I know this will never happen. It is like asking cats and dogs to team up, but it would work.
I have the top 200 package, and with extra receivers, and some other fee's, it is around $85 per month.

It seems like not that long ago, when we just had cable, that $85 per month seemed really expensive, but would have at least bought you most of the premium channels. I can remember back then, saying "we can't afford $85 per month for T.V.", so we did without the premiums. Now, sadly, $85 is a pretty normal bill, for middle of the road programming.