[soylentcola]

I think part of it is that they can charge content owners/distributors (cable networks) more money with higher subscriber numbers. It's why I can pay $69/mo for 100/10 internet service from Comcast but for $99/mo I get 80 channels of cable plus HBO on top of internet service. If I were to buy only cable TV, that same package would not cost just $40/mo but they'd rather have me boosting their cable sub numbers than just paying them for a data pipe so they heavily discount the price.