There’s something amiss when cable subscribers in Lewiston-Auburn can watch Manchester United play Arsenal live from Old Trafford, but not – maybe – the New England Patriots play the Chicago Bears live from Super Bowl XLI in Miami.

We’d break out the rabbit ears first.

This scenario could happen, if the intolerable machinations of the cable industry cause Time Warner to yank CBS programming from thousands of Maine subscribers. While some may enjoy the Fox Soccer Channel, we’ll take the National Football League for our Sunday afternoons, thank you much.

Few industries are more infuriating than cable television. From ill-timed installation and service calls, to sprawling and expensive channel packages, cable providers have thrived on the infinite American lust for programming to become powerful 21st century robber barons.

Take John Rigas, for example, the deposed founder of Adelphia Communications Corp. who spent his company into bankruptcy. The 80-year-old Rigas was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his crimes, or one year for every $6.6 million he looted from Adelphia.

Adelphia’s meltdown led to its acquisition by Time Warner, which inherited Maine. During the takeover, Time Warner told the Sun Journal the change would not mean another rate hike. We should have asked about losing a channel available on local televisions since Elvis swayed on Ed Sullivan.

What was a smooth transition to Time Warner is marred by this quarrel over CBS, whose local station – WGME – is owned by Sinclair Broadcasting. (Disclosure: WGME-TV and the Sun Journal are also local news partners.) Time Warner’s local contract expires in 2009, and its subscriber base is shrinking. More than 21,000 customers in L-A, Sabattus and Lisbon had cable in 2004; it dipped to 19,000 in 2005.

A fresh analysis of Nielsen Media Data by the Television Bureau of Advertising has also found consumers nationwide are steadily uncoupling their cable boxes in favor of satellite and direct television. In some markets, the TVB found, the ratio of cable and satellite is approaching 50-50.

In L-A, cable still dominates, but the tide is apparently turning. L-A and Portland are lumped together for data purposes, and this market area reached its peak “alternate delivery system” penetration in November: 17.6 percent, according to Nielsen data. This percentage has crept up steadily; in Nov. 2005, it was 15.7 percent.

Central Mainers also benefit from the presence of a local, competitive, cable provider in Oxford Networks. The company is dedicated to stringing enough miles of fiber-optic though the Twin Cities which, if strung out straight, could probably connect Lewiston-Auburn to Los Angeles. Oxford Networks has about 650 subscribers in the region.

Given these choices, amid the interminable environment of cable, L-A is lucky. Even so, Sinclair and Time Warner need to settle their contract spat amicably and keep CBS on the air.

They can’t afford to alienate more local viewers, with so many having already realized more convenient, inexpensive and local options for their entertainment programming exist.

Rabbit ears included.