Hockey is finally back. And all you puck fans not lucky enough to have tickets for this weekend's opening games still get a chance to catch all the NHL action with a free NHL CENTER ICE 13-day preview.

The free preview, which runs from January 19-31, is available for digital customers of Time Warner Cable, DirecTV and (as far as I can determine) Dish Network.

NHL Center Ice has up to 40 games a week across 14 channels, along with a bunch of extra content.

The season pass package is priced $49.99 for Time Warner Cable customers and $59.96 for DirecTV customers. The season runs through April 27, 2013.

Clear your calendar and clean out the DVR: we're all getting free Showtime this weekend!

And by "we," I mean everyone with a digital subscription to Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, AT&T U-verse and Dish Network. The promotion runs Friday, January 11 through Sunday, January 13, and coincides with the Sunday season premieres of Showtime series "Shameless," "House of Lies" and "Californication." (For movie fans, "Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part I" and "Iron Lady" with Meryl Streep also debut on the channel this weekend, and there's a slew of slightly older movies like "My Week with Marilyn," "50/50" and "The Help.")

It's also a great chance to watch as much "Dexter," "Homeland," "Nurse Jackie," "Episodes," "Weeds" and "The Big C" as you possibly can on Showtime On Demand. You can't record On Demand shows to watch later, so that means you may have to pull some all-nighters. You can also install and use the Showtime Anytime app, which you can use on iPad, iPhone, Android or a computer.

Of course, Showtime is hoping you'll like what you see enough to subscribe. For more information on the free preview weekend, go to Showtime's website.

Proving the Fiscal Cliff negotiations in Washington have nothing on them, Capitol Broadcasting Company and Media General both reached last minute deals with satellite and cable carriers late Monday night to keep them on the air after contacts were set to expire at midnight.

Around 11:30 p.m. Monday, WRAL vice president and general manager Steve Hammel confirmed that parent company Capitol Broadcasting Company had reached a deal with DIRECTV. The deal will keep CBS affiliate WRAL and Fox affiliate WRAZ, both owned by Capitol, on air for DIRECTV customers without interruption.

About an hour earlier, Media General and Time Warner Cable announced that they had reached a tentative deal that will keep local NBC affiliate WNCN on-air for Time Warner Cable customers.

Media General had requested a 200 percent fee increase from the cable company, which had called the demand unreasonable.

Around 10:30 Monday night, NBC-17 tweeted: "NBC-17 and Time Warner Cable have reached an agreement that will keep NBC-17 programs on Time Warner with no interruption!"

At the same time, a statement from Time Warner Cable stated: "While we work to finalize our agreement, our customers will continue to receive Media General programming without any disruption.”

If you've been paying attention to commercials running lately on WRAL, you already know that the Capitol Broadcasting Company, which owns the local CBS affiliate WRAL and the local Fox affiliate WRAZ, is negotiating with DIRECTV to keep Capitol stations available to DIRECTV customers.

The company's contract with DIRECTV is set to expire on Dec. 31.

The commercial running right now features a woman explaining WRAL's position in the negotiation process, a tactic often used by both sides in these types of negotiating battles to win the hearts and minds of viewers. The actress says she "found out" about the negotiations and then explains Capitol Broadcasting's requested fee increase, saying she thinks it's fair since WRAL is "the most watched channel" on DIRECTV's lineup.

Neither DIRECTV nor WRAL would comment on the details of the negotiation, but a WRAL website says that the figure they seek is "the cost of a cup of coffee per month per subscriber."

How can you watch the 2012 Summer Olympic games? Pretty much any way you want.

Much of the action will be available on good ole over-the-air NBC, but if you're really into the Olympic games, you've never needed a cable or satellite subscription quite so much. NBCUniversal is putting all of their muscle into the summer games, offering multiplatform coverage through collaborations with cable and satellite providers (meaning you'll also need those subscriptions to watch online). This way, NBC can deliver content over multiple television channels (both live and on-demand) as well as live streaming on NBC's Olympics website, on mobile devices and tablets.

The cable channels NBCUniversal brings to the table are NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus), MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo and Telemundo. In addition, there are two HD specialty channels featuring non-stop basketball and soccer, the NBCOlympics.com website, and NBC Olympics Live Extra apps for mobile phones and tablets.

Everyone's happy that DirecTV and Viacom finally worked out their problems late this week, but it looks like one of the byproducts of that new deal is that online access to TV shows could become more difficult in the future for those who aren't paid subscribers.

According to media reporter Brian Stetler in today's The New York Times, the deal means that Viacom-owned shows like "Jersey Shore," which airs on MTV, will become more accessible online for DirecTV subscribers through a sign-in system. (HBO offers a similar model for its subscribers called HBO GO, which has customers sign in through their cable or satellite provider.)

The Times article says, "free access to people who don't subscribe to DirecTV or another similar distributor is likely to become more restrictive, thereby fortifying the existing model of TV distribution."

Nothing has changed yet, but analysts believe that's the way things could be headed.

From NYT: "The disruptive role of online video will almost surely rear its head again in negotiations between DirecTV and CBS later this year, and in other such contract negotiations."

There's much more in the full article, which is definitely worth checking out.

After a nine-day blackout -- and a bit of fatalistic drama earlier this week -- Viacom and satellite company DirecTV have reached an agreement that will restore Viacom channels to DirecTV's 20 million customers.

Details of the agreement were not released Friday morning. More to come...

Bad news for DirecTV customers missing Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV and other Viacom channels. Viacom has released a statement saying that negotiations have "moved backwards significantly" and that DirecTV has "created more obstacles to reaching an agreement."

And this from the L.A. Times: Denise Denson, Viacom Inc.'s executive vice president of content distribution, said the media giant was no longer in negotiations with DirecTV Inc. over a deal to return its cable networks to the satellite broadcaster's service.

Denson went on to say that she didn't see any end in sight to the dispute.

You know how there's a Viacom blackout on DirecTV and everybody's all, "Oh, I'll just watch on the internet" about it?

Not so fast!

That's what DirecTV was advising customers to do (watch online), so  Viacom cut off internet access to some of the most popular shows on their darkened channels.

Here are the shows you can't watch online: "The Daily Show" and "Colbert Report" (Comedy Central); "Spongebob Squarepants," "Victorious" and "iCarly" (Nickelodeon); "Dora the Explorer" (Nick Jr.); "Jersey Shore" and "Teen Mom" (MTV); and "Hot in Cleveland" (TV Land).

Update: CNN is reporting that DirecTV is giving $10 discounts to subscribers who call and complain about the missing content.

Viacom pulled their channels from DirecTV early this morning, after a long  dispute over how much the satellite company would pay for Viacom programming.

No Viacom means no MTV (Snooki!), no Comedy Central (Jon Stewart!), and no Nickelodeon (Spongebob!).

Other missing channels include BET, CMT, TV Land, Spike, and Logo. For now, Viacom has replaced the channels with channels offering similar content.

About 20 million households are affected by the blackout.

These feuds aren't unusual, but they are often worked out at the last minute. The New York Times story linked above says that Michael Nathanson, a media analyst for Nomura, has told investors that he and his colleagues wouldn't be surprised if the blackout lasted for one to four weeks. Yikes.