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NBC Boston may not run on Charter Spectrum as parents fight

Mike St. Peter, the president of NBC Boston, NECN, and Telemundo Boston gave a tour of the new NBC Boston studio.Suzanne Kreiter/Globe staff/Globe staff

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If your cable company is Charter Spectrum, you may not be able to tune into the new NBC Boston station when it launches on Sunday, as well as other related networks such as MSNBC, New England Cable News, and Bravo.

Charter Spectrum and NBC parent NBCUniversal said Friday that they have yet to reach a new national agreement to carry more than a dozen of the media giant’s channels, which means Charter customers won’t be able to watch “Sunday Night Football,” live Celtics games, or “The Today Show.”

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Charter Spectrum, which recently combined with Time Warner Cable, primarily serves central and Western Massachusetts. The company had about 223,000 subscribers in 68 municipalities as of the end of 2015, according to the latest filing with the state department of telecommunications and cable.

“Charter Spectrum has been unyielding in its demand for terms superior to those agreed to by the rest of the industry, including larger distributors,” according to a statement from NBCUniversal.

The impasse comes as NBC parts way with longtime Boston affiliate WHDH-TV (Channel 7) on Sunday. The network is launching its own station, NBC Boston, and will shift its programming there. WHDH will become an independent news station.

A spokesman for Charter Communications, the cable operator’s parent company, declined comment but indicated in an e-mail that the new NBC Boston station will be added on Sunday to its line up on channels 10, 17, or 23, depending on location.

Whether viewers will be able to see anything will depend on whether Charter and NBCUniversal reach a new deal after the current one expires Saturday. Cable behemoth Comcast Corp. owns NBCUniversal, as well as NECN, CSN New England, and Telemundo Boston.

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Shirley Leung is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at shirley.leung@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @leung.