There is one thing that can save pay for TV, two words. Google Fiber.
But other than that I agree, I have even taken the step of doing a Silicondust Prime, built my own dvr and I still get screwed by the cable provider. But I do pay quite a bit less than I did, because I do not have their set top boxes anymore. I record movies to the HTPC, then have two Xbox's as extenders, one for the living room another for the bedroom, so no longer need their equipment. But here is the rub, the cable card is $2.00 and that is all I need now from the provider as opposed to two set tops for $15.00 a piece. And when i did this I also got rid of some of the premium packages, and a couple of other things to get the monthly bill down.
All in all I should have saved nearly $70.00 a month, but because of the 'bundle' option they had us on, I was only able to save $30.00 a month, still a bit better but irritating nonetheless.
So once its available I will take a long look at Google Fiber. $70.00 for a 2 TB dvr, 8 tuners and gigabit internet? Oh yeah.