NEW YORK: Univision Communications announced two more of three major retrans deals completed this week, plus a host of smaller ones. The Spanish-language network secured carriage on AT&T’s U-verse IPTV system and with Insight Communications, the nation’s ninth largest cable operator.
AT&T will pick up Univsion’s 64 owned and/or operated stations, plus network affiliates owned by Entravision, Equity Media and others. A similar arrangement was struck with direct-broadcast satellite TV provider DirecTV earlier in the week. The carrier is also adding Univision’s cable network, Galavision, as well as network feeds of Univision and TeleFutura to the lineup.
Insight Communications, a New York-based operation with 700,000 subscribers, will pick up Univision content. Additional carriage deals were struck with 50 more cable and telcoTV operations around the country, including Atlantic Broadband, Baja Broadband, Etan Industries, Grande Communications, Guadalupe Valley Communications, Qwest Communications, Service Electric and TVMAX.
Terms of the deals were not disclosed, though Multichannel Newsreports that Univision chief Joe Uva said during 2007 upfronts he would seek $1 per sub per month. Univision previously elected must-carry rather than retrans fees.
In other recent news, Univision laid off 300 people equating 6 percent of its workforce, and cancelled the network’s weekend newscast.
The company is owned by private investors.
