That's an exaggeration of the pricing of subscription television over here, as it's based off the highest prices of each category. To watch what milamber wants to watch wouldn't cost as much as that...
The package he'd need to include the channels he wants would work out about $912 if he was willing to cut out the fancy HD and additional channels and whatever else... Then the pay-per-view individual costs on top of that...
In regards to the monopoly over here... I don't see it as a bad thing. In fact, I see the free-to-air monopoly on sports as a worse thing...