Is it possible to buy cable service as a group and get a big discount?

Back when I was in college, my dorm building student government voted on what service we wanted for the year. We had a HUGE 10 foot satelite dish and purchased channels directly. We had a budget of a couple dollars to spend per dorm room, and most channels were a nickle or a dime. The premium channels were a dollar. There was no middle man. We ended up with close to 25 channels for $3 per room and that included a movie channel HBO plus all locals.

Adjusting for inflation that $3 budget would probably be close to $7-8 in 2008 dollars.

What do providers like Comcast pay per channel per house? Is it still a dime or quarter to get USA or TBS or TNT?

Is there any way to negotiate a deal so a group of homes can get a discount? How many homes would it take before a group can buy directly using a big satelite dish?

Do any people in associations buy HD service in bulk and then everyone gets access? How much of a discount is this?

there are home owner associations that seem to contract for cable tv and then include it in the monthly dues. What's the point of locking everyone in unless there is a discount?

(speaking stricly of buying as a group from the local cable franchise here)

i live in a home owner association where the association buys cable service at a discount and is supplied to every house and we pay for it in our monthly dues.
milt

i live in a home owner association where the association buys cable service at a discount and is supplied to every house and we pay for it in our monthly dues.
milt

how big of a discount do you get?

discount about half of what is posted on the cable co web site. it helps if there is competition of services in your area.
milt

I misunderstood the original question, and deleted my reply. Sorry for the misinformation.