On Thursday, at about midnight, nearly 13 million subscribers of Time Warner Cable Inc. were set to lose most of their Fox channels, unless the service provider managed to reach a last-minute deal to pay the demanded fees to News Corp to continue broadcasting the shows.

As the deadline inched closer, talks managed to heat up much more than ever, and the two sides reach a standoff on some important issues.

The owner of Fox, News Corp, reportedly wants Time Warner Cable to pay $1 per subscriber per month to keep its rights to carry Fox's free-to-air broadcast shows such as "American Idol," "The Simpsons" and "House", in additional to sports broadcasts like NFL and college football.

In cities like New York Los Angeles and Dallas, subscribers stand to lose all broadcasts of Fox programs.

"I have urged Fox and Time Warner Cable to agree to a temporary extension of carriage if they do not come to terms on a new carriage agreement today, in order to prevent disruption to their viewers", said Federal Communications Commission chair Julian Genachowski, while proposing a temporary deal on Thursday.

Now both the companies have agreed that Fox would receive a 30-day cooling off period, during which further talks would go on, and viewers will not lose any channels.