Despite standoff over programming fees, Univision unblocks AT&T’s access to Democratic debate
AT&T and Univision Communications will hit the pause button in their dispute, allowing U-Verse customers to watch the Spanish-language broadcast of Wednesday’s Democratic debate in Miami.
Late last week, Univision channels went dark on AT&T’s U-Verse pay-TV system when the two companies could not agree on a new carriage contract. The dispute centers on programming fees that Univision is demanding for its popular Spanish-language channels.
The two sides on Tuesday reached a temporary truce in the standoff so that AT&T’s Spanish-language customers can watch Wednesday’s Democratic debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
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The debate, co-sponsored by the Washington Post, comes six days before the important Florida presidential primary on March 15. Univision News anchors Maria Elena Salinas and Jorge Ramos will moderate.
“We appreciate Univision agreeing to our request earlier today to unblock their channels temporarily during the upcoming Democratic presidential debate,” AT&T said in a statement.
“This is the right thing to do for our Spanish-language customers as we continue working toward an agreement with Univision,” AT&T said.
Nationwide, about 6 million customers subscribe to AT&T’s U-Verse pay-TV plan. It is unclear how many of those customers primarily watch the Spanish-language channels.
The Dallas TV giant is striving to lower the rates that U-Verse pays in an effort to bring its programming fees into alignment with those paid by DirecTV.
AT&T acquired DirecTV, based in El Segundo, last summer, and the company now boasts 26 million customers for DirecTV and U-Verse offerings.
Because of its clout, DirecTV pays substantially lower fees for TV channels than does U-Verse.
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