Univision Communications Inc.’s tense standoff over carriage fees paid by cable operator Charter Communications shifted into high gear late Tuesday when several million homes in the U.S. with Charter-Spectrum service abruptly lost access to Univision’s popular Spanish-language television channels.
Charter no longer had legal authorization to distribute the channels — Univision, UniMas, Galavision and the Univision Deportes Network — as of 9 p.m. Pacific time, and was forced to drop the networks from its lineup.
“We have a contract with Univision and we expect them to honor it," Charter said in a statement.
The blackout, which came just as Univision viewers were poised to watch a fresh episode of the telenovela “Vino el Amor,” included more than 1.6 million homes in the Los Angeles region with Charter-Spectrum television service.
Univision is the nation’s largest Spanish-language media company. The outage does not affect customers of Dish Network, DirecTV, Comcast or other pay-TV systems.
The dramatic move — after months of on-again, off-again negotiations — comes as Charter and other pay-TV operators are struggling to hold the line on programming costs. It follows a lawsuit that Univision, based in New York, filed against Charter in July 2016.
Univision alleged in its suit that the cable operator was illegally trying to adopt the fee structure of Time Warner Cable, which Charter acquired last spring. Charter has also faced legal action from Fox News and Showtime Networks.
Time Warner Cable, a much larger cable-TV system than Charter, generally had negotiated lower fees than Charter.
“Charter still refuses to value Univision’s content and the audience we serve,” Univision said late Tuesday in a statement, adding that the Connecticut-based Charter had rejected Univision’s “repeated, good-faith efforts to reach an agreement.”
“As a result, Charter has decided to deny its subscribers continued access to Hispanic America’s most popular entertainment and sports, and most trusted news content,” Univision Matadorbet said.
Los Angeles represents the largest market for both Charter and Univision. The Spanish-language broadcaster’s No. 1 station is KMEX-TV Channel 34. KMEX’s local newscasts typically beat several of the English-language television stations in Los Angeles.
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