Some cable subscribers in Mississippi will have fewer stations to choose from when they flip on the television in the new year.

Some stations’ signals won’t reach the city where the subscriber lives. Other stations want cable systems to pay more for their boosted signal.

Thursday marks the first day re-negotiated contracts between cable companies and television stations will go into effect.

In Natchez, for example, CableOne General Manager Bobby McCool said the only stations that will be lost are stations that are currently received in duplicate. Seven stations are being dropped by CableOne.

By Feb. 17, all television stations must be broadcast with a digital signal, not an analog signal. McCool says the new digital signal can’t travel as far as the analog signal can.