NATCHEZ — The new year will bring higher bills and the possible loss of a Jackson television channel for Natchez Cable ONE subscribers.

The company said television customers can expect an increase in their bills beginning with the January billing period.

Cable ONE recently announced increases, which will be as follows:

• Economy cable rates will increase by $5 per month;
• Standard cable rates will increase by $8 per month;
• Preferred packages (cable/Internet and cable/phone) rates will increase by $6;
• Elite package (cable, phone and Internet) rate will increase by $6 per month.

Cable ONE spokeswoman Trish Niemann said current customers who are subscribed with promotional rates are excluded from the increase during the term of their promotion.

Niemann said the increase is the result of cable networks increasing their rates by an average of nearly 30 percent over the past three years.

“Despite our best efforts to control these dramatically increasing programming costs, Cable ONE, like other cable and satellite companies, must pass a portion of these costs on to our customers,” she said.

Cable ONE is currently negotiating with Hearst Television, which owns WAPT-ABC, to keep the station in Cable ONE’s Natchez lineup.

If an agreement is not reached by midnight Saturday, Hearst could force Cable ONE to remove the channel from its lineup.

“Natchez is at risk of WAPT-ABC going dark if we are not able to come to a fair agreement with Hearst by midnight on Saturday,” Niemann said.

Cable ONE Vice President Mitch Bland said in a statement Wednesday that, “negotiations have been very slow.”

“And resolving this negotiation by the deadline, at this point, appears very unlikely, unfortunately increasing the real chance of disruption to our customers,” he said. “We will continue to reach out to Hearst with offers that are more than fair in hopes of reaching an equitable agreement for our customers by the deadline.”

Bland said that Hearst Television is currently asking for a rate increase of more than 100 percent — more than double their previous contract with Cable ONE.

Hearst is currently in a similar battle with DirecTV over stations in 28 markets across the country, Bland said, and Hearst’s “difficult negotiation with DirecTV could be impacting negotiations with Cable ONE.”

“We realize that Hearst’s main focus may currently be on resolving their bigger deal with DirecTV, but our hope is that Cable ONE customers don’t suffer as result of living in smaller, more rural markets that aren’t as impactful to Hearst’s bottom line,” Bland said.