HBO - bargain basement deals

Right now I have FIOS - and my subscription ran out on 11/5.  One of the first things I noticed was that I now have HBO until 1/31 - for free.  Of course, being the money conscious individual that I am, I called to see if there was some sort of deal for renewing my contract.  What I got was a $5 discount guaranteed for 2 years.  Oh, and I get HBO for one year.  Personally, I think they're being a little skimpy with the discount.  I am, according to them, a loyal FIOS customer.  So I did what everybody out there should do when their contract expires, call the competitor.  Surely, I thought, Comcast would at least be able to match their deal.  First of all, it took a bit of convincing for their service rep to understand what I meant when I said, I only need TV and Internet (my phone is through T-Mobile).  Then there was the issue that two of the channels I watch were in 2 different packages and the best they could offer me was $2 higher then what I'm now paying for FIOS.  Oh, but I get HBO with the package.  In fact both customer service reps kept bringing up HBO, over and over again, as though that one pay channel was going to be the deal breaker.  Perhaps I've missed something but it seems to me Showtime is the channel most people are talking about, not HBO.  Sure, when The Sopranos were on, and if you were one of those people who couldn't live with out them, HBO was the channel to have, but that is no longer the case.  Nothing with value is ever free.  So for right now what I'll probably do is wait a bit and see if I can get a better discount from FIOS.  There's nothing wrong with the service, they just need to offer a wider variety of packages.  The same goes with Comcast.  Not everybody wants a sports package.  The only sport I watch on TV is cycling and now, thanks to the Internet, I can watch it on my laptop.  In fact, if I want to, I can hook my laptop up to my big, flat screen TV and watch Hulu.  What these cable giants need to realize is that HBO is not going to put money in their bank.