After more than a month of negotiations that left Hispanic Verizon Fios customers in the dark, the MVPD has agreed to a new retransmission fee agreement with Univision Communications.
As a result, all Univision-owned stations have been restored to Fios lineups in all impacted markets.
In an official announcement released Saturday afternoon (11/18) by Univision, the Doral, Fla.-based media company noted that, through this deal, “Verizon has demonstrated that it is committed to providing Hispanic America with the critical news, information and content that they rely on.”
Univision added that it looks forward to furthering its partnership with Verizon across its platforms, and expressed deep gratitude “for the patience of our viewers who were impacted as we worked through the blackout. UCI is committed to fighting for Hispanic America – on the airwaves and off – and providing the best news, information and entertainment that our community deserves.”
That fight crippled Verizon Fios subscribers who rely on Univision and UniMás network programming, starting in mid-October. Also impacted: the Galavisión network, traditionally one of the most-watched Spanish-language cable networks in the U.S.
Univision’s war of words was particularly aggressive. In its view, the company offered an extension of its current agreement, which has expired. Verizon declined to extend the old deal. Thus, “entirely without warning,” Verizon dropped all Univision stations from both its FiOs and mobile platforms at 5pm Eastern on Oct. 16.
A Verizon statement retorted that Univision is proposing an increase “of more than double what they charge for access to their channels today.”
A few days later, Verizon fully responded to Univision by sending a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. In it, Verizon SVP/Public Policy & Government Affairs Kathleen Grillo turned defensive, while inserting some language straight out of the marketing department.
“Despite diligent efforts by Verizon over the last two-plus months to reach reasonable terms with Univision — and considerable movement on our own part during those negotiations — Univision has consistently insisted on unreasonable terms that would raise prices and harm our customers,” Grillo said.
Specifically, Grillo claimed that Univision wishes to have Verizon “more than double its annual payments” to the Hispanic media company, “notwithstanding Univision’s reported declining viewership.”
With each side shoveling PR-approved puffery to the press, a group of six senior Members of the U.S. Senate wrote to FCC Chairman Pai and the leaders of both Verizon and Univision to press for a swift resolution.
That came on Oct. 26, some three weeks ago.
According to a source close to the matter, some 5 million people are FiOs subscribers. But, the source adds, “Verizon doesn’t index high with Hispanic as do other large mobile providers.”
Still, Verizon Fios is largely concentrated in the Northeast Corridor of the U.S., serving the New York Tri-State Area, Boston, Philadelphia, and much of the residential communities surrounding the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. areas—all areas of significant Hispanic population growth, fueled in recent years by Puerto Ricans and Dominicans.
RELATED READ:
UNIVISION LURES CNN LATAM VET JANIOT FOR ‘NOCTURNA’ ROLE
A Colombian journalist who is also a beauty queen and former model has just been selected to become the latest late-night estrella on U.S. television.
Starting in January 2018, Patricia Jadiot will co-anchor Univision’s late-night network newscast, Noticiero Univision Edición Nocturna, alongside Enrique Acevedo.
