NATCHEZ — Cable ONE executives have until Monday to negotiate a contract with a company that provides a variety of channels — including Comedy Central, BET and TV Land — to its customers.

Cable ONE President and CEO Tom Might stated in a press release sent to customers Friday the company has been in negotiations with Viacom for two months to continue carrying its 15 networks, which include BET, Centric, CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, MTV2, MTV Hits, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Nick Teen, Nick Toons, Spike, TV LAND, VH-1 and VH-1 Classic.

Cable ONE’s contract with the mass media company based in New York expires Monday.

“Viacom has finally given Cable ONE a proposal for continued carriage of their networks,” Might stated in the press release. “They are asking for a rate increase greater than 100 percent, even though viewing is down on 12 of their 15 networks since 2010 — some by more than 30 percent.”

Might said Cable ONE executives are asking Viacom to either reduce their rates because of the declined viewership or allow the cable company to drop some of the less popular networks to reduce the total cost.

“So far, they have refused both reasonable requests,” Might stated. “In any other business, when there is less demand, the price goes down, not up.

“If Viacom is unwilling to negotiate a fair agreement, we will let these networks go in favor of bringing you some of the top-rated networks you’ve been requesting and expanding several other highly-requested networks to our most popular level of service.”

Viacom spokesman Mark Jafar declined to comment Wednesday.

Cable ONE serves 730,000 customers in 19 states with high speed Internet, cable television and telephone service.

Cable ONE serves 9,843 customers in Adams County and Concordia Parish.