NATCHEZ — With less than a day left before a potential Cable One channel blackout, officials didn’t express much hope Sunday for a resolution.

On the heels of a television network contract deadline today, Cable ONE executives say the company will drop 15 networks — including BET, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon — if the provider remains “unreasonable” with negotiations.

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

Cable ONE President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Might issued a statement Sunday regarding contract negotiations with Viacom, a mass media company based in New York.

Cable ONE and Viacom have been negotiating an extension of its contract 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 Viacom expires today.

“Despite our best efforts, Viacom is still asking for a rate increase greater than 100 percent to continue carrying all 15 of their networks, even though the ratings are down since 2010 on 12 of their networks,” Might stated. “We asked Viacom to allow us to carry just the channels some of you really watch, and the rate they demanded was even higher. That means we would have to pay more for fewer channels.”

Might said the company has received feedback from its customers stating they don’t want to pay more for networks they watch less.

“In the event that Viacom remains unreasonable, we will let their networks go in favor of adding many highly rated channels that you have been requesting and expanding the carriage of others, including: BBC America, Sprout, Investigation Discovery, the Blaze, Hallmark Channel, National Geographic, TV One, Sundance and more,” Might stated.

Viacom spokeswoman Carole Robinson issued a statement Sunday saying the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC), which is Cable ONE’s negotiating representative, continues stalling discussions.

“As we approach (today’s) expiration date for our agreement, NCTC unfortunately continues to stall our conversations rather than work collaboratively and quickly toward a compromise,” Robinson stated.  “As a result, we’ve taken steps to notify our viewers in your area that they may be in danger of losing our networks.

“We are simply asking your cable provider for fair value for our networks, which continue to deliver more viewers than any other cable programmer but cost far less to cable companies.”

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