Happy Hostilities!

摘要

Broadcasting and cable executives are bracing for their new holiday tradition, the annual outbreak of fights over cable systems' carriage of local TV stations. Dec. 1 is a pivotal day. Many systems' deals to retransmit local TV signals— so-called retransmission consent—expire at the year's end. Federal rules require them to give subscribers 30 days' notice that a station may go dark. Stations routinely grant extensions to keep negotiations going or to push the whole matter off for a few months.