Ending a nearly eight-month standoff, Dish Network and Univision Communications signed a new long-term carriage deal. The companies said restoration of Univision networks and stations on DishLatino and Dish will begin immediately and all pending litigation has been settled.
Nielsen’s SVOD content ratings and Local Nielsen Media Impact Included in the New Service Agreement. Univision is the latest media company to subscribe to Nielsen’s national out-of-home reporting service.
The Univision network said six of its staffers, including veteran anchorman Jorge Ramos, were briefly detained at the presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, on Monday. Ramos and the crew members were released a little less than three hours after the episode began.
Gizmodo Assets Pulling Down Univision
Univision is acknowledging the financial weakness of the Gizmodo Media Group digital media assets the company has purchased over the last few years, including the former Gawker Media Group publications it picked up in the summer of 2016. The company reported that the assets lost $32.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Spanish-language network Univision on Friday joined a lawsuit against the Commerce Department’s decision to include a citizenship question on the upcoming 2020 U.S. Census. The media company signed on to a lawsuit pursued in northern California, challenging the Commerce Department’s authority to add a question on citizenship to the census.
Exclusives
Dish Network, which has blacked out several Univision-run channels after failing to reach a new distribution deal with the programmer, has lobbed a lawsuit at Univision claiming that the Spanish-language broadcaster is infringing a batch of patents tied to adaptive bit-rate streaming.
How WXTV Superserves Audience With WhatsApp
When Univision announced expanded local news apps for seven of its top markets this week, one of the platforms for “integrated social media sharing capabilities” was a channel you won’t usually see in similar English-language-station releases. It’s WhatsApp, the world’s most popular messaging app, but one that’s little-used by U.S. newsrooms.
The new apps will include livestream so mobile users can watch local newscasts in real time.
New Morning Show To Dawn On WGBO
The money-losing Gizmodo Media Group, operator of sites including Jezebel, Deadspin and The Onion, is still struggling to find a buyer — six months after it got put on the block by Univision, the Spanish-language broadcasting giant, sources say.
Univision 3Q Revenue Falls 17%
Adversely impacted by its carriage dispute with Dish Network, the loss of World Cup ad revenue to rival Telemundo, lower ratings, and the 2018 rate increase of its agreement with long-time primetime programming supplier Televisa, Univision has reported a 17.3% plunge in revenue to $628.2 million from $759.4 million for its 2018 3rd quarter results ending Sept. 30, 2018, compared to the same period last year.
Univision on Tuesday said that Dish Network has decided not to renew its carriage agreement for Univision Deportes Network, broadending the dispute between the two companies. Dish dropped Univision’s lifestyle cable networks in April and its main channel in June. In recent statements, Dish has indicated little interest in bringing the channels back.
Former Nexstar executive Diane Kniowski will have oversight of the company’s TV and radio stations in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Dallas, Houston and Chicago.
Univision has sent a letter to the heads of the FCC and Federal Trade Commission buttressing its case that Dish continued to market the channels that had gone dark on the satellite service. The two are embroiled in a retransmission consent impasse that has resulted in Dish not carrying Univision, UniMas and Galavision since the end of June.
A license agreement has expired, but Dish still tells its subscribers they can get Univision, according to new counterclaims filed.
The Spanish-language broadcaster and the cable operator come to terms, avoiding a blackout.
The company will attempt to harness the influence of its Univision Creator Network (UCN), a group of online creators under the network’s brand, to drive conversation around the upcoming 11th season of its competition series Nuestra Belleza Latina that it hopes will lead audiences to its linear channel.
TV dramas about brutal drug lords helped give Telemundo an edge over Univision in primetime in the soon-to-wrap TV season, recently released ratings reveal.
The now Vince Sadusky run Univision may be trying to trim costs and staff to stay competitive but the purchase and possible sale of The Onion could result in a whole new set of tears for the Spanish-language media company. That would be at least $2 million dollar’s worth of tears to be specific in a lawsuit filed against Univision and the news satire outlet late last week by financial specialists GCA Advisors.
Net income rose 8% to $114.3 million from $106.1 million a year ago because of lower interest and tax payments. Adjusted operating income fell 7.5% to $304.1 million. Revenue dropped 2% to $749.8 million. Ad revenue was down 7.3% to $434 million.
Dish Network says the removal of Univision Communications’ TV networks — from both its satellite and over-the-top Sling TV services — might be for good. On June 30, after Dish and Univision failed to come to terms on a contract renewal, more than 60 Univision-owned stations and cable channels including UniMás and Galavision went dark on Dish’s pay-TV platforms. “This removal could become permanent,” Dish said in a 10-Q regulatory filing Friday.
Billionaire Haim Saban is considering stepping down as chairman of Univision Holdings and has told associates he wants Peter M. Kern to take his place at the Spanish-language media company, people familiar with the matter say. Kern, the CEO of Tribune Media, is already advising Univision CEO Vincent Sadusky, who replaced Randy Falco this year.
The departure of the chief revenue officer comes amid the regime change at Univision that began when Vincent Sadusky took the reins from CEO Randy Falco in late May. Since then, chief content officer Isaac Lee and programming chief Lourdes Diaz have also departed
Isaac Lee, the man who oversaw Univision’s push into digital through the creation of Fusion and the acquisition of the Gawker assets, will now launch a TV production company.
Ion, Trinity and Univision have weighed in at the FCC with supplemental evidence for what they argue is the need to roll back the FCC’s 39% cap on a TV station group’s national audience reach, and preferably all the way rather than raising it once again.
With Univision Communications’ dispute with Dish Network ending its second week with seemingly no end in sight, the broadcaster has taken to the airwaves and social media to inform its viewers of other ways they can watch its programming, including via cable, telco and its own over-the-top service Univision Now.
Univision is making a U-turn in its digital media strategy. The Spanish language media company said Tuesday that it is looking to sell most of the online properties that it has acquired in the past few years. This includes the family of websites formerly known as Gawker Media — including brands like Gizmodo and Jezebel — and the satirical publication The Onion.
Sling TV has stopped offering its Broadcast Extra add-on amid a program licensing dispute with Univision. “We are not currently offering our Broadcast Extra service, which includes ABC, Univision and UniMás, on Sling TV. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this causes with viewing the programming that matters to you,” said a Sling FAQ posted Monday.
Univision says that it offered Dish Network a short-term extension before its distribution agreement expired on Saturday, but that Dish turned it down, leading to a blackout of Univision’s stations and some of its networks.
The largest Spanish-language network, already buffeted by declining ratings, on Monday suffered through its third day of being blacked out on Dish Network and Sling TV. The carriage dispute is keeping Univision away from the pay TV outlets’ 13 million subscribers. Talks between the parties continue.
More than 60 Univision O&O station went dark on Dish’s national platforms as the companies battle over a new carriage contract. The Univision-owned stations and cable channels including Univision Deportes and Galavision went dark at 7 p.m. ET Saturday as the previous contract expired. The sides have been negotiating a new pact for weeks. Dish on Friday night declared the talks at an impasse.
Another carriage dispute looms. Univision Communications’ lifestyle channels have been dark on Dish Network since around 7 p.m. ET Saturday when the current carriage dispute expired. Univision said it offered an extension agreement to Dish to keep the channels live but was refused.
Univision Communications veteran Jessica Rodriguez has been promoted to president and chief operating officer of the Univision Networks division, overseeing programming, production and marketing operations for the Spanish-language media giant.
Sinclair, Nexstar, Univision and American Tower partner on developing a next-gen TV single frequency network that will be a test of a developed model for the transition from ATSC 1.0 to 3.0 and the deployment of SFN sites in preparation for future national deployment of 3.0 broadcast services.
Univision Communications and Grupo Televisa are teaming on a TV pilot initiative for the development of scripted and unscripted series by global independent producers aimed at Hispanic audiences.
