DORAL, FLA. — The virtual MVPD that is seeking to put a stop to the Venu Sports joint venture that aims to bring a bevy of pro sports play-by-play and live action to a competing over-the-top platform in the works is pointing fingers at the biggest Spanish-language content creation and distribution company in the world for failing to agree on a new carriage deal.
As such, an impasse is in play between FuboTV Inc. and TelevisaUnivision, resulting in a “blackout” of all of the U.S. Hispanic market’s biggest media company’s cable and broadcast stations on the Fubo service.
In a statement released late Monday, FuboTV Inc. blamed TelevisaUnivision blamed Fubo for “pulling their programming” from the vMVPD; by law, a carriage agreement providing fair compensation to a broadcast or cable TV station owner must be in place before a cable or satellite TV service provider can pocket any subscription fees from a consumer.
And, Fubo is taking the approach seen time and time again by a cable TV industry — plus DirecTV and Dish — that is suffering from a downward spiral in total customers, even as Fubo says it is gaining cord-nevers and cord-cutters with its sports-first proposition.
“This unfortunate development is the result of TelevisaUnivision refusing to offer what we believe to be fair and competitive rates,” Fubo said, adding that it made “considerable efforts and offered compromises” to renew its “long-standing content agreement” for TelevisaUnivision and its affiliated channels.
However, Fubo says, “TelevisaUnivision presented us with a new contract with restructured terms that would increase prices by 25% for our subscribers. Furthermore, TelevisaUnivision’s unfair bundling and tying practices require Fubo subscribers to buy all of their channels, including the channels they don’t watch.”
As such, Fubo argues, “TelevisaUnivision, the biggest provider of Spanish language content in the U.S., is attempting to use its dominant market power to force Fubo to pay higher prices, resulting in our Spanish-speaking subscribers paying significantly more to receive vital local news and weather, as well as sports and popular entertainment programming, in Spanish. TelevisaUnivision further abuses our Hispanic customers who love sports: to get all of the sports content that TelevisaUnivision offers, Fubo subscribers still have to pay separately for Vix+.”
ViX is the heavily promoted OTT platform offering Televisa and Univision programming across the U.S. and Latin Amerca.
“As it is always Fubo’s mission to offer a leading selection of premium sports, news and entertainment content while also providing value, we cannot accept TelevisaUnivision’s conditions on behalf of our customers or our investors,” Fubo says, adding that it remains open to negotiating a new content agreement. Yet, “it must be fair and equitable for our subscribers. That includes accessing Spanish-language content in our Latino plan at a cost that is competitive.”
Responding early Wednesday to RBR+TVBR‘s request for comment, a senior TelevisaUnivision spokesperson said, “TelevisaUnivision’s content is vital to Spanish-speaking audiences, providing trusted news, sports and entertainment programming that deeply resonates with our community. We have been working in good faith to reach an agreement with Fubo to avoid this outcome, but they refuse to pay the market value that other distributors have agreed to. Fortunately, our channels are broadly distributed across many platforms, ensuring our audience has plenty of options to continue enjoying our programming while we work towards a resolution.”
