Nearly 17 million Charter Communications pay-TV customers nationwide — and about 1 million in New York — could lose NBCUniversal networks in a carriage dispute between the companies, according to USA Today.

Should the pay-TV provider and programmer not reach an agreement by Sunday, some Charter customers could miss a crucial Sunday Night Football game between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions — the winner earns the NFC North crown — and possibly two outdoor hockey games, Sunday’s Centennial Classic between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings and Winter Classic featuring the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks on Monday, as well as Monday’s Tournament of Roses Parade.

The blackout could result in a dropping of NBCUniversal networks such as Bravo and USA for Charter’s 16.9 million Spectrum pay-TV subscribers nationwide. And those in cities such as New York, L.A., and Dallas-Fort Worth, where NBC owns the local station, customers would also lose the flagship NBC broadcast. The areas around Green Bay and Detroit would not lose their NBC channel, as NBC does not own stations in those markets.

At issue are what are called “carriage fees,” which are the fees that NBCUniversal, like other content providers, charges Charter to show NBCUniversal channels, Western Journalism reports.

“NBCUniversal values its partnership with Charter Spectrum, our third largest distributor,” the company said in a statement.

“Charter Spectrum has been unyielding in its demand for terms superior to those agreed to by the rest of the industry, including larger distributors. Given this position, we feel the responsibility to inform viewers that Charter Spectrum may drop NBCUniversal’s networks at the end of the year, including NBC, Telemundo, USA, Bravo and hit shows including the #1 show on TV — Sunday Night Football, WWE, the Golden Globes, This Is Us and more.”

Needless to say, people are pissed off:

“@GetSpectrum Love to see we are paying 200+ a month just to see you guys screw around and take away channels we watch based on bs.”

Love to see we are paying 200+ a month just to see you guys screw around and take away channels we watch based on bs.

— Brent Jones (@jonesbrent570) December 31, 2016

“@GetSpectrum y’all got to stop this every year. You’re too expensive and you can’t seem to keep networks. I hate dish but I’ll switch.”

https://twitter.com/JohnnyDAngel/status/814995917992562688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Charter‘s only comment has been to note that pulling the plug on programming would be NBCUniversal’s decision.

Jack Davis at Western Journalism reports that earlier in 2016, Charter acquired Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. The new company was branded as Spectrum. The deal made Charter America’s second-largest cable and Internet provider.

Other NBCU networks, including MSNBC, Bravo, E, USA and SyFy, will also go dark if no deal is reached by midnight Saturday.

NBC on Thursday began running a warning to customers.

Carriage disputes occur often, said TVPredictions.com publisher and president Phil Swann.

“Deals are made with multi-year terms and they end at year’s end,” he said. “More times than not, they get settled before blackout. But you never know, which causes viewer anxiety.”

Dean James III% AMERICA’S FREEDOM FIGHTERS

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