PHILADELPHIA – Stay tuned for more fee disputes threatening local television stations on cable TV lineups.

Broadcasters hurt by declining ad revenue are demanding more fees from cable and other subscription TV providers to carry the stations. The providers are resisting, and in the latest tussle, Cablevision Systems Corp. dropped the ABC station in New York in the hours leading to Sunday’s Oscars telecast.

More such blackouts loom as several networks and various providers across the country have contracts set to expire this year, including one covering major ABC stations in Time Warner Cable Inc. markets. All signs point to down-to-the-wire talks that could leave viewers scrambling for other ways to watch their favorite shows and major sporting events.

“There’s a lot of money at stake,” said Robin Flynn, an analyst at SNL Kagan. “There are a lot more fights coming up.”

Such disputes used to be limited to cable channels such as CNN and ESPN, as they have long been paid per-subscriber fees by the providers. But in recent years, stations that are broadcast for free over the air have demanded such fees from cable TV and other providers as well.

That began first in smaller markets, with affiliates that are not owned by the networks but carry their programming. Now, the networks are demanding such fees for the stations they do own, especially in the larger markets such as New York and Los Angeles.

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NEW YORK – Cablevision subscribers were scrambling Sunday to hook up antennas or find live TV on the Internet in order to watch the Academy Awards after ABC’s parent company Walt Disney Co. switched off its signal in a dispute over fees.

The standoff affected 3.1 million subscribers to Cablevision Systems Corp. in parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

In dueling statements, the companies traded blame for the stalemate ahead of one of the most-watched nights of television. It was the first time in a decade that a major broadcast station went dark in a dispute with a cable company.

“Cablevision has once again betrayed its subscribers,” said Disney spokeswoman Charissa Gilmore. “Cablevision pocketed almost $8 billion last year, and now customers aren’t getting what they pay for … again.”

Cablevision said the stall in negotiations should be blamed on Disney CEO Bob Iger. “It is now painfully clear to millions of New York area households that Disney CEO Bob Iger will hold his own ABC viewers hostage in order to extract $40 million in new fees from Cablevision,” said Charles Schueler, a Cablevision executive vice president.

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NEW YORK – The Academy Awards have a tiresome habit of calling the annual Oscar telecast “Hollywood’s biggest night.”

This year the Oscarcast could prove to be a pretty big night for television, too.

The economy may be wheezing, but advertising time on ABC’s Academy Awards shindig (Sunday at 8:30 p.m. EST) is sold out, with the price tag reportedly $1.5 million per 30-second spot, up from less than $1 million last year.

And even in an era defined by eroding TV viewership, several promising signs — including the David-and-Goliath battle between “Hurt Locker” and “Avatar” — suggest Oscar could regain a measure of its past ratings glory.

Last year, the Oscarcast attracted 36.3 million viewers, with dark horse hit “Slumdog Millionaire” crowned best picture. In 2008, the audience, by Oscar standards, was even paltrier — just 32 million, as the not-for-everyone drama “No Country for Old Men” claimed the big prize.

But roll back the clock to 1998, when titanic interest surrounding “Titanic” helped bring an all-time-record of more than 55 million viewers to the show.

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LOS ANGELES – City prosecutors have obtained arrest warrants for four people connected to giant billboards at an intersection near the site of the upcoming Oscars, days after they jailed a man accused of putting up a separate eight-story supergraphic ad there without a permit.

Judge Mildred Escobedo issued the arrest warrants accusing the four defendants of misdemeanor counts of violating the city’s municipal code, including a ban on the installation of new supergraphics, according to court records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times Wednesday.

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich also secured misdemeanor criminal warrants against four companies connected to the two sites where signs were hung, the Times reported.

The defendants include the buildings’ owners, an advertising company and a sign installer.

One of the defendants, Alexander Kouba, planned to turn himself in and would contest any charges against him, his lawyer Steve Madison said.

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