Verizon Pulled Spanish-Language Broadcaster Univision From Fios Service; 5 Million Customers Affected

On October 16, around 5 pm eastern New York time, without notice Verizon dropped the Spanish language television network Univision from its Fios and mobile platforms, leaving 5 million clients without being able to enjoy news broadcasts, telenovelas and other dramas, sports, sitcoms, reality and variety series.

The usual programming of all the platforms of Univision, were replaced by an informative video in which they explained the causes. “While some customers are relying on coverage of the recent natural disasters in Puerto Rico and Mexico, Univision is proposing an increase of more than double what they charge for access to their channels today. In addition to the unfortunate timing of this excessive price increase, we believe the appeal for Univision’s programming is waning given their reported declining viewership. We’ve provided Univision a reasonable offer to continue providing you access to their channels. Unfortunately they rejected that offer and as a result we no longer have rights to bring you their networks,” informed Verizon to its clients.

“Verizon is committed to providing a wide variety of great Spanish-language entertainment options to our customers. Given the recent natural disasters in Puerto Rico, we worked with the owners of WAPA America and TV Dominicana to make these channels available to all our customers at no additional charge. This is in addition to an already robust line-up that includes channels like Telemundo, Discovery en Espanol, Telemicro Internacional and TVE Internacional,” reads the statement.

According to the Univision statement, the Verizon decision was a surprise move of great concern. "Verizon chose to take this unprecedented action despite Univision's offer of an extension of the current agreement," the statement read. "In light of recent natural disasters and current events impacting the Hispanic community, we are surprised and deeply concerned that Verizon would remove us from its systems — and without warning to its customers."

"We urge Verizon to put Univision back on and come back to the negotiating table and prove its commitment to the Hispanic community and show that it understands the value of Spanish-language programming," Univision Communications added.

The affected Fios customers have complained to both parties about the dispute and have threatened Verizon and Univision with eliminating their support, alleging they will cancel their subscription and begin to enjoy Telemundo’s lineup.