DIRECT TV Included an "automated" renewal of services I never authorized in my automatic debit to my account El Segundo California

Directv provides satellite TV services to my home.  I signed up for automatic debit payment because it reduces the cost by a few bucks a month but of course that gives the company access to my personal funds. 

Directv chose to arbitrarily add $41.99 to this month's service fee in anticipation of my "wanting" their NFL ticket broadcasts in September.  In addition, their statement said that I would be billed $41.99 per month for the next 6 months unless I called and canceled the service and what's more, if I called after the broadcasts began there would be no refund. 

I did not order the service, I did not want the service and I certainly did not want to spend 30 minutes on the phone canceling something that I did not want or request.  Plus, I do believe it is illegal for a company to charge for an unsolicited service and then continue to charge for it unless the customer takes a certain action.

So the bottom line is that if I had not noticed the single sentence on my bill (and of course we are all encouraged to sign up for paperless billing, right?) and if I had not called to cancel the service, my account which they had access to would be charged for a six month period in the amount of $41.99 for something I never asked for, never authorized and didn't want!

I believe that it is illegal to operate that way.  It is time someone called them down in this underhanded business practice.  Suppose I had not had sufficient funds in my account to cover the auto debit.  I would have then been charged $35 by my bank for a return item and then, according to the fine print in the Directv bill, they would have charged me $30 on top to handle the NSF.  Then I would have had to request not only a refund of $41.99, but also another $65 and none of it was due to anything I even had prior knowledge of.  I am sure that series of events has happened to more than one person in the Directv customer archives.  I am incensed, to say the least.  Outraged and injured are other words that come to mind.