AT&T customers can get their Univision back tonight, at least to watch Bernie and Hillary vying for residency at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The programmer says it will temporarily unblock its channels for the Democratic presidential debate for AT&T U-verse subscribers.
The news came yesterday via a posting at AT&T’s public policy blog. “We appreciate Univision agreeing to our request earlier today to unblock their channels temporarily during the upcoming Democratic presidential debate,” it states. “This is the right thing to do for our Spanish-language customers as we continue working toward an agreement with Univision.”
Things were testier sounding earlier this week, which included some harsh words from Jessica Herrera-Flanigan, EVP, government relations an public policy at Univision: “If, as the most popular Spanish-language broadcaster, we do not take a stand and require the distributors treat us on par with English-language broadcasters, what does that mean for the minority and independent creators that come after us?”
The squabble between Univision, the country’s largest Spanish-language broadcaster, and AT&T U-verse came to a head last Friday when the programming went dark for 5.6 million AT&T customers. The companies are skirmishing over how much AT&T should pay Univision for its channels.