Should a deal not get done soon, NBCUniversal could pull its owned and operated channels from cable provider Charter and its 16 million Spectrum customers.
The Comcast-owned multi-channel provider is currently locked in a retransmission/carriage fee dispute with the largescale communications company. With a January 1, 2017 negotiations deadline looming, NBC, Telemundo, Bravo, E!, Syfy, USA, MSNBC, CNBC, and Oxygen could all end up unavailable in many markets, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told TheWrap.
While no time is a good time for a blackout, the upcoming NFL Postseason gives NBC a pretty solid bargaining chip.