The Showtime/HBO ISSUE

If there was no beef between promoters and they weren't partial to Showtime/HBO, would it come to a bidding contest between HBO and Showtime for each event? Because if that's the case, wouldn't HBO just outbid Showtime on all the main fights, leaving the smaller fights for Showtime? Now we know the casuals will hop on the big time fights but getting them to view the lower level cards will be a struggle. How would it all work? In an IDEAL situation, or even a realistic one.