SYRACUSE -- Once again, four million Time Warner Cable subscribers face the possibility of losing one of their local network TV stations.
Time Warner Cable Inc. is still trying to reach a deal with Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. on the fees that Time Warner pays to carry Sinclair's station. The current agreement expires at midnight Friday after two extensions.
That means local affiliates of Fox, CBS and ABC could go offline for some Time Warner customers. No NBC stations will be affected. Sinclair owns the My43 and Fox 68 stations in Syracuse.
Time Warner says its customers will still be able to see network programming. It plans to import broadcast signals from other cities through the end of February.
Separately Sinclair says it's reached a tentative agreement with Bright House Networks and has an additional week beyond Friday to finalize a deal.
Previous story on December 28:
Time Warner Cable Inc. customers from Portland, Maine, to Pensacola, Fla., including those in Central New York, could lose access to one or more of their network TV stations because of a contract dispute with Sinclair Broadcast Group.
The dust-up between Sinclair and Time Warner is one of a growing number of disputes over the fees that cable providers pay broadcast stations to include their signals in channel lineups. The last high-profile dispute that caused a blackout came earlier this year when Cablevision Systems Corp. customers went without Fox programming for 15 days - missing two World Series games.
Broadcast companies used to allow cable providers to carry their channels for free and made their money selling commercial time. But competition with cable networks for ad dollars has intensified, and the recession underscored how quickly ad spending can fall off when businesses need to cut spending. Now broadcasters see these fees from cable providers as a crucial, second revenue stream.
In the latest dispute, Sinclair is asking for more cash for the right to carry signals from its stations, but Time Warner Cable is resisting the increase.
If a deal isn't reached, 33 Sinclair stations in 21 markets - among them Fox, NBC, CBS and ABC affiliates - could go dark for Time Warner customers after midnight Friday. Sinclair owns two such television stations in the Syracuse market - WSYT Fox 68 and WNYS My43.
However, Fox owner News Corp. has agreed to provide Time Warner with network programming in case a local station operator withholds its signal. That resulted from an agreement a year ago between the two companies to resolve a similar dispute over fees. So Time Warner customers would still get shows such as "Glee," "House" and "The Simpsons," even if they couldn't watch the local Fox newscast.
These disputes have been particularly rough on sports fans. If Sinclair and Time Warner don't reach a deal by this weekend, for instance, college football fans in Pensacola may not be able to watch the ABC broadcast of the Florida Gators playing in the Outback bowl.
Sinclair, which is based in Hunt Valley, Md., said Tuesday that Time Warner has not presented a counterproposal since rejecting Sinclair's most recent offer. Time Warner says it is still ready to negotiate.
Still, Sinclair doesn't have as much clout in these negotiations as the big networks themselves, which have stations in major markets such as New York and Los Angeles and are owned by media conglomerates, which also operate cable networks. Sinclair's stations are located in smaller cities, including San Antonio, Texas, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh.
Time Warner has been embroiled in a similar dispute with the owner of Utica-area NBC affiliate WKTV for nearly two weeks. The station has been off of Time Warner Cable systems since December 16.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
