The court battle between Univision and Televisa starts tomorrow. Grupo Televisa claims in a suit filed three years ago Univision cheated the Mexican company out of more than $100 million in royalties. At stake: breaking up a programming partnership that makes Univision the ratings leader among Spanish-language viewers in the U.S.
According to the L.A. Times, Univision last year generated $538 million in advertising from Televisa programming. Their net revenue was $2.1 billion. Univision paid Televisa about $145 million in license fees.
Televisa seeks to end its long-term programming agreement, currently set to expire December 2017. This would allow Televisa to charge higher fees for its shows…. or explore selling its programming elsewhere in the U.S.
Univision was purchased last year by a group of investors for $13.7-billion dollars.
It’s estimated the trial could last 4 weeks, with Televisa CEO Emilio Azcárraga Jean and other executives from both sides testifying.