Charter Asks Court to Toss Univision Breach of Contract Claims
Univision's distribution contract with Time Warner Cable remains operative, even though TWC is now part of Charter Communications, since Charter's contract with Univision expired in June, Charter said in a motion to dismiss in New York State Supreme Court in…
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Manhattan. Univision is suing Charter, claiming license fees in its TWC agreement apply only to the legacy systems and through this year (see 1607080022). Charter said Friday the structure of New Charter and the language of the TWC contract back its argument the TWC contract applies to all of New Charter. Univision didn't comment Tuesday. Typically, such contractual disagreements settle before becoming litigation, a sign numerous such programmer/New Charter disputes may have come up since the close of the TWC and Bright House Networks deals in May, one cable lawyer who has been active in retransmission consent and program access negotiations told us Tuesday. The language in programmer/cable distributor agreements is sometimes unclear on merger/acquisition transactions, and language in such agreements can vary significantly by deal, the lawyer said. Charter undoubtedly pursued the TWC deal in part because of the acquired company's lower-priced programming agreements, with TWC having been an effective procurer of programming rights, the lawyer said. Charter didn't comment Tuesday. Its reply in a similar suit brought by Fox News Network (see 1607200065) is due Friday in the Manhattan court. Charter said Univision's twin breach of contract claims -- that it applied the wrong rate to the legacy Charter systems after the Charter contract expired and it hasn't negotiated a new contract or agreed it can't apply the TWC contract to any New Charter cable system starting in 2017 -- fail to state a contract claim as a matter of New York law. Univision hasn't pointed to any part of the New Charter contract entitling it to negotiate a new contract, Charter said. Charter said it wasn't seeking dismissal of Univision's declaratory judgment claim. While acknowledging it and Univision disagree about when the TWC contract ends -- end of this year or in 2022 -- Charter said Univision showed no breach of contract: "If Univision does not want to accept payments pursuant to that contract after year-end, then it can terminate the signal on Defendant's cable systems at that point."