Mediacom Communications and Sinclair Broadcast Group agreed to an extension of their retransmission consent agreements just hours before Sinclair’s stations could have been removed from Mediacom cable systems.

The extension keeps the stations on cable until Jan. 5, 2007. This will allow negotiations to continue in order for both parties to reach a longer-term agreement, Mediacom said in a statement.

The retransmission consent fight has been ugly, with Sinclair urging Mediacom subscribers to switch to satellite and Mediacom taking Sinclair to court.

About 800,000 Mediacom subscribers live in markets where Sinclair owns stations.