Time Warner Customers may miss The Ultimate Fighter

Reports have been circling the web that Time Warner and Viacom have not yet agreed to extend their contract for television channels like MTV, Nickelodeon, and SpikeTV. Apparently Viacom wants huge increases while Time Warner is standing firm due to a sagging cable market.

Under pressure to boost its revenue amid an advertising slump and threats to its business model posed by the rise of the Internet, Viacom is seeking fee increases of between 22% and 36% per channel from Time Warner Cable, which is the fourth-largest video distributor in the U.S. after Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), DirecTV Group Inc. (DTV) and DISH Network Corp. (DISH).

If the agreement isn’t made, MMA fans will miss the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter which is set to begin airing its 9th season on SpikeTV in April of 2009.