Blank screens for Fox watchers on New Year’s Eve?

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Media reporter Joe Flint says don’t panic if you’re watching Fox’s New Year’s Eve special and the screen goes black moments before host Carmen Electra finishes screaming ‘Happy New Year.’ There’s nothing wrong with your TV. You’re just caught in a brawl between two media giants.

At issue are the fees that News Corp., Rupert Murdoch’s sprawling media empire, is demanding that Time Warner Cable pay for transmitting its Fox stations -- including KTTV-TV Channel 11 and KCOP-TV Channel 13 in Los Angeles -- as well as cable networks such as FX, Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket.

The current deal between Fox and Time Warner Cable, the nation’s second-biggest cable operator with more than 1 million subscribers in Southern California, expires at midnight Thursday.

Read his story here

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