https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/subscription
“A subscription is an amount of money that you pay regularly in order to belong to an organization, to help a charity or campaign, or to receive copies of a magazine or newspaper.”
You want to throw out some examples, this century please, where your subscription isn’t a recurring charge?
Any theater subscription or any online purchase where you don’t keep a payment method on file, agreeing to a recurring charge. And if you do agree to a recurring charge, that is an automatic renewal of a subscription.