No “Biggest Loser?” No “Grey’s Anatomy?” No sparkling BarbieBassett predicting the weather?

The best programming of NBC, ABC and their statewide evening newsfrom Jackson could drop off the grid at year’s end for subscribersof DirecTV unless the mega company can square up a deal with twocapital city broadcast stations. The parent companies of WLBTChannel 3 and WAPT Channel 16 – Raycom and Hearst, respectively -are still trying to negotiate a contract with the satelliteprovider to carry the stations, and those channels may go black onthe satellite if an agreement isn’t reached by midnight on Dec.31.

“For people with DirecTV, you would not have WAPT or ABCprogramming until we get an agreement,” said Stuart Kellogg,president and general manager of WAPT.

Kellogg said negotiations between Hearst and DirecTV are ongoing,and representatives from both parties met Thursday. He’s hopeful anagreement will be reached in the remaining week – they always havein the past, he said – but WAPT and WLBT are broadcasting thewarning to DirecTV customers just in case.

“I guess it’s the nature of negotiations when you have a deadline.Like when you have a school paper that’s due tomorrow, guess what -you do most of the work the night before,” Kellogg said.

Even if the agreement isn’t reached by the Dec. 31 deadline,DirecTV customers could still enjoy WAPT and WLBT for a whilelonger if negotiations are favorable. Extensions are commonplace inTV negotiations if a deal is close to being reached, Kelloggsaid.

But if the talks fall apart, DirecTV customers will be without ABCand NBC programming. Broadcast laws prohibit the satellite companyfrom simply piping in other affiliates, Kellogg said.

“We have the rights to ABC in the Jackson, Miss., market, so theyare not allowed to just bring in someone else,” he said.

WLBT General Manager Dan Modisett pointed out DirecTV customerswill still have access to his station and WAPT even if the dealfalls flat.

Both stations broadcast their programming in high definition forfree, and DirecTV customers would just have to dust off the old TVantenna to receive programming the old-fashioned way. Or, DirecTVcustomers could switch to another satellite service, like DishNetwork, or sign up for cable. WLBT has pledged to beginbroadcasting local news on its website if needed.

But Modisett doesn’t believe all that will be necessary. He’sconfident the negotiations will succeed before the end of the year,or DirecTV will drop the channels for a week at worst before asettlement is reached. The back-and-forth between the companies isjust signs of the times, he said.

“The communication industry has changed a great deal,” Modisettsaid. “Used to, you only had cable systems and they weremonopolies. You were either on or off. Now, it’s competitive. Allthese folks are adjusting from being monopolies to the competitiveenvironment.”

But Jade Ekstedt, a representative with DirecTV, said in an e-mailRaycom stations are in no danger of dropping off the air thisyear.

“The message that Raycom is broadcasting to viewers about thepossibility of DIRECTV customers losing their local channels at theend of the month is incorrect and we are confused as to why theyare misleading our customers,” the e-mail said. “Our contract withRaycom has been automatically renewed for one year (to expire onDec. 31, 2011) as we negotiate a longer-term contract that extendsbeyond 2011.”