Time Warner Cable lives on — at least it does when it comes to contentious fee negotiations.
Spanish-language media giant Univision Communications is accusing Charter Communications of using its recently completed acquisition of Time Warner Cable to lower the fees it pays to carry Univision’s channels.
Univision slapped Charter with a lawsuit on Friday, claiming the No. 2 cable operator is trying to lay claim to Time Warner Cable’s older, less expensive carriage deal.
Although Charter plans to do away with the much-maligned Time Warner Cable brand, it now claims that Time Warner Cable is still managing its own systems for the purposes of getting a better deal, according to the complaint filed in New York state court.
Univision has two contracts — one with Charter, which just ran out on June 30, and a separate deal with Time Warner Cable that runs until 2022.
“We have a long-term contract with Univision, and we expect them to honor it,” a Charter spokeswoman said.
Charter is claiming that the Time Warner Cable rates should remain in effect through 2022, even though Univision’s contract clearly states that they end the year the acquisition occurred, according to the suit.
Stamford, Conn.-based Charter completed the $55 billion takeover in May.
“New Charter — the resulting company — is now flagrantly breaching Univision’s contract with Charter by using the acquisition as a pretext to unilaterally impose license fees that are dramatically below current market license fees for Univision’s valuable content,” the suit said.
Charter is going a step further by arguing that Time Warner Cable’s more favorable rates should also extend to the bulk of Charter’s systems, the complaint said.
Charter’s senior vice president of programming, Allan Singer, “unilaterally elected” to distribute Univision programming across its systems under the Time Warner Cable agreement.
“Mr. Singer rested his claim upon the blatant fiction that TWC — and not the pre-acquisition Charter team running New Charter — now ‘manages’ all of those cable systems.”
Univision said they should negotiate a new contract covering both Charter and Time Warner cable systems because they are owned by the same entity.
Unlike with most carriage disputes, Univision stopped short of blacking out its flagship network and nine other channels.
There have been no negotiations since June and none is scheduled, according to sources.
Univision, which is preparing to go public later this year, will reap $494 million in carriage fees from pay-TV providers in 2016, according to S&P Global data.