Lack of competitive choices is the reason they get away with this. My choices are 1 cable provider, Dish, and DirecTV. Not much competition. I have tried cutting the cord and streaming TV, but it's not ready for prime time yet. I also tried DirecTV and they had their own set of junk fees. At this point, I just pay the fees and hope technology improves enough to have ubiquitous choices.
I'm finally dropping cable TV entirely because my TiVo with lifetime subscription finally died. But I basically don't watch it so it's not that hard a decision even if the alternatives aren't perfect.
