CBS and Time Warner Cable are in a public spat over fees in three major TV markets.
If it's not resolved, six local CBS TV stations could go dark for around 3 million Time Warner Cable customers in New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas starting Wednesday.
The dispute could also cause a blackout of CBS-owned Showtime for those of the 11.9 million Time Warner Cable video customers nationwide who pay extra to watch it.
The dispute centers mainly on how much Time Warner Cable pays for the right to retransmit signals from six CBS-owned stations: WCBS and WLNY in New York; KCBS and KCAL in Los Angeles; and KTVT and KTXA in Dallas.