Can I remove an add-on from an automatic renewal offer without calling CS?

Hello all, and Merry Christmas.

For background, I received an email in June explaining that because I hadn't watched TNT Sports (included in my Maxit TV package at the time) it was being removed "to provide the best value entertainment." Smelling a bit of corporate manure I looked into this and, sure enough, the real reason turned out to be a pricing war between Virgin and TNT in response to which Virgin Media appeared to be removing dormant subscribers to save itself a few bob without actually admitting so.

I hate this sort of half-truth manipulation and so I had TNT Sports re-added to my subscription as a matter of principle. I still wasn't watching it, but I had effectively paid for it as part of an 18-month contract and I don't like being misled in goalpost-moving emails.

Cut to this month and it looks as though my principles may have bitten me on the backside (and not for the first time, to be fair).

My contract renews in early January and I've been offered what appears to be a reasonably generous one-click discount on an 18-month renewal. It's not quite as good as the deals I've negotiated in the past by phoning up and haggling, but it's within a few quid per month and pretty good considering I had two legacy custom discounts on the old package. And it would almost be worth paying a small premium to avoid having to hang on the phone for an hour and play the flirting game with Retentions.

The problem is that because I have TNT Sports on my existing package, this has been added to the new deal as part of the renewal offer.

There is some conflicting information as to whether this is included in the overall TV package going forward; the renewal page says it is but also refers to the package as Maxit which is the old name under which TNT Sports was indeed included before the corporate spat. Meanwhile all of the CS and user feedback in this forum says it isn't part of any renewal package (Mega?) and I'm minded to think that the forum experts are more likely correct.

All of which means that renewal offer almost certainly includes a premium for TNT Sports as an add-on, an add-on I do not need nor wish to pay for. And because of the way the web page works, I can upgrade the package to include more add-ons but I can't remove any. (That little one-sided 'quirk' is something I would love for Martin Lewis / Ofcom to look into like they did with opaque April price rises, but that's a conversation for another day).

My suspicion is that if I phoned CS and explained all this, I might be in with a fair chance of getting the renewal deal sans TNT Sports with a few quid knocked off, similar to deals I've had in the past. But I was really, really hoping to avoid the phone game this year.

Is there any way that the offer can be 'tweaked' to remove TNT Sports with the aid of the CS reps here, or should I start warming up my phone flirting persona and bracing for an hour in the hold queue?

Thanks.