Folks with Time Warner Cable might want to check around and find a spot to watch the Cotton, Sugar, Fiesta and Orange Bowls from because the cable operator will drop all Fox stations and channels on New Years Day.
It is a fight over rights fees, and it this one is has become drawn out because it could reverberate throughout the broadcast industry. Fox wants more money (about $1 per subscriber) from Time Warner. Right now the cable and satellite operators aren't paying anything near that much to the over-the-air networks for retransmission of their programming. The other networks are watching this fight and no doubt will begin their own negotiations based on how this turns out.
Long term there are many who think that the major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) will eventually stop operating as over-the-air networks and become "super" cable channels. Comcasts purchase of NBC has increased that talk.
Short-term, TWC subscribers who are fans of "American Idol" as well as the BCS Bowls will have to make do.