Well, DirecTV is certainly not trying to keep my parents as customers. They are out of contract, and they wanted to see if they could renew and get a better price for a year or two, so my dad called (as I suggested) and asked whether there were any deals to renew. He was told flat out that DirecTV wasn't going to be doing that kind of thing any more. I'd say I am shocked, but Spectrum has been telling people in his area the same thing for the last year or so too. Pretty much take it or leave it. Now my dad wants to switch to Dish to save money, but I am not sure they will have good line of sight to the eastern arc without putting a dish on their ancient tin roof, which seems like a bad idea.