my best promo offer a couple weeks ago as a “VIP” was $87/year ($72 sub + $15 royalty), similar to last year. I was not aware of the hassle-free long-term offer.

I didn't say "hassle-free". ;-)

It was as obnoxious as all the annual arguing has ever been, but like always you just have to hang tough and demand the deal. I believe I told the guy that I was tired of having to call every year and I was getting ready to just cancel altogether. It helped that I could say that my friend (an anonymous on-line person that google turned up--which I didn't mention that niggling detail) just recently got offered a $5.99/mo deal. I _always_ googled before calling them to see what kind of offers people were getting.

Maybe I could have gotten $5.99 with another hour of arguing. Whatever offer you want, they ALWAYS initially say that there is no such offer, no matter how many people have said online that they just renewed at it. An extra $1 wasn't worth my time and aggravation. $6.99 and never having to call again was good enough.