For many years I had C-Band subscriptions. They would always give nice discounts to people who elected to pay for their subscriptions by the year. It was good for both the customer and the programing providers. The programing providers saved on bookwork and monthly billing and the customer got his programing at a lower rate. C-Band programing providers still offer these discounts.
All the time D* is trying to get you to go to auto monthly billing, via credit card, to make things easier for them, but at no savings to the customer. I take that back, they offered, I think it was, a one time $10.00 off your bill to do it, last month.
They should have some incentive programs to help the subscribers save cost, by offering discounts for auto pay by credit card or yearly billing in advance. Like someone said above, it would benefit D* as well with year in advance. They know that subscriber will be around for another year, and won't be leaving next month. But until they do, they can continue sending me my bill every month.