If you are a Dish Network customer and planning on watching Sunday’s AFC championship game on KKTV, you should probably be making alternate plans. The CBS affiliate might be dropped from the Dish channel lineup at 5 p.m. Tuesday unless it can reach a new contract at the last minute.

The dispute comes less than a week after DirecTV dropped KRDO-TV, the local ABC affiliate, from its channel lineup and is part of a battle between local television stations and television providers that has left viewers caught in the middle, unable to watch their favorite programs or sporting events. KRDO and 24 other stations owned by its parent company, News Press & Gazette Television, remain out of DirecTV’s channel lineup, but negotiations continue, said KRDO General Manager Tim Larson.

KRDO avoided being dropped from Dish’s lineup with a last-minute deal in February, while KOAA-TV, the local NBC affiliate, was dropped four days a year ago amid contract talks.

Actor and former DirecTV pitchman Rob Lowe said in a tweet Saturday, which has since been deleted, that he was “‘Screwed Over’ Rob Lowe, with @DirecTV that cuts off my ability to watch NFL games during the playoffs,” referring to a Fox affiliate in Santa Barbara, Calif., that is one of the 25 News Press & Gazette Television stations dropped from DirecTV’s lineup.

KKTV warned customers Monday that Dish could drop the station’s signal Tuesday unless a new agreement is reached between Englewood-based Dish and KKTV parent company Gray Television, which owns 50 other stations in 26 states. KKTV urged viewers to send email complaints, call Dish Network, switch providers, or get the station’s signal free using an antenna. Viewers also can watch KKTV’s local newscasts online at kktv.com and can watch CBS programs online via CBS All Access (www.cbs.com/all-access), which is a paid service but offers a free one-week trial.

Dish said Monday in an email statement that it “has not ‘decided to stop carrying’ the broadcaster’s signals. Only Gray Television can force a blackout of its channels. With a deadline of Jan. 17, ample time remains for parties to reach an agreement or extension, and Dish is actively working to reach a deal before the contract expires. Dish has successfully negotiated agreements representing hundreds of stations in recent months that benefit all parties, including our viewers. Gray is simply trying to use consumers as pawns in an effort to gain leverage for their own economic benefit.”

Gray said in a news release that Dish “has refused after many months to even begin negotiating carriage terms that are consistent with those that Dish has provided to other broadcasters and cable channels.” Dish also declined to extend the existing agreement with Gray beyond Tuesday’s deadline, according to the release.

“While our signal is available for free with an antenna, it is not free for wholesalers to bundle with other networks and charge for it,” KKTV General Manager Nick Matesi said Monday. “Cable and satellite providers pay substantial fees for each subscriber to ESPN and other popular networks. Viewers access ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC programming through affiliates like us. Cable and satellite companies have resisted paying anything, saying they are trying to keep monthly bills low, but we need to be compensated for our signal just like other broadcasters.”

Sunday’s NFL playoff games could help trigger an agreement with KKTV and KRDO. KOAA General Manager Evan Pappas said at the time that a 2015 playoff game between the New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens helped spur negotiations between the station and DirecTV, producing a deal minutes before kickoff. DirecTV had dropped KOAA nine days earlier.

Market research firm SNL Kagan estimates the average local TV station got $1.40 a month per subscriber last year, less than one fourth of what Disney-owned ESPN gets, from satellite and cable providers. Such fees generated about one-fourth of Gray’s revenue in the nine months ended Sept. 30, but were up nearly 30 percent from the same period a year earlier. Network programming costs were increasing nearly as fast during the same period. SNL Kagan, which is a division of S&P Global Market Intelligence, forecasts that retransmission fees will grow by nearly 60 percent by 2022.

“This is about ensuring the survival of local broadcasting. We pay an enormous amount for local news, syndicated shows and network programming,” Matesi said. “Broadcast television is still the most powerful medium out there. Thursday night NFL games on CBS still outdraw games on the NFL Network by several multiples.”

A growing number of viewers are going without either satellite or cable television. Matesi said about 20 percent of KKTV’s audience watches on televisions connected to digital antennas, and that percentage is growing although many viewers supplement with online services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, or go with a less expensive cable or satellite package.

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