Among the signs of a new year: a ball (or acorn) dropping, champagne popping and TV titans fighting.

Television broadcasters and pay-TV providers are increasingly at odds over programming fees. With many contracts tied to the calendar year, those disputes tend to flare up as Jan. 1 approaches.

This year's edition pits Time Warner Cable, the Triangle's dominant pay-TV provider, against Sinclair Broadcasting, which owns WLFL, or CW22, and WRDC, or MyRDC. Both sides are warning customers of blackouts when their contract expires at midnight on Dec. 31.

An extended blackout could disrupt fans of popular CW shows such as the Vampire Diaries, Nikita, 90210 and Gossip Girl, left.

Shares of Time Warner Cable rose today after the Triangle's largest pay-TV provider reported stronger financial results and announced plans to buy back $4 billion of its stock.

The company is selling more services to its existing customers, helping offset the loss of some cable-TV subscribers.

Nationally, Time Warner Cable added 104,000 broadband subscribers, but lost 155,000 video subscribers. The company blamed increasing competition from phone and satellite TV providers, and the economy.

CEO Glenn Britt said the company is considering a "value" cable-TV package to win back some of the budget-focused households it's losing.

The fight between the Triangle's cable-TV provider and Walt Disney, the owner of ESPN, ABC 11 and other channels, is coming down to the wire.

Time Warner Cable and Disney officials have been in negotiations for months, but haven't agreed to terms of a new contract. If they don't reach a deal by Wednesday, the spat could lead to blackouts for millions of cable subscribers across the country -- just in time for football season and the new fall-TV lineup.

In today's News & Observer, Time Warner Cable ran a full-page ad blaming Disney for the blackout threat.

Congress: "No healthcare? Take a hike, you dirty, rotten so-and-so! No baseball on TV?! Oh my goodness, we have to do something!"

It seems members of Congress are joining in a bipartisan effort to end a dispute that hits us where we live and breathe: keeping MLB games on cable TV. Get the details from our friends at Under the Dome.

We're not endorsing the notion that you should cancel your cable or satellite service (or that you should purchase cable or satellite if you don't already have it). But a Happiness reader (thanks, Jake) tipped us off to this website, which explains how you can see your favorite shows -- legally! -- without paying for cable. And we're all about more ways to watch TV shows (our favorite way is Hulu).

We definitely like it, but here's why we don't love it: