The trial was postponed four times, but the Televisa-Univision legal battle finally got its start on Tuesday.
Reuters reports that during his opening argument, a Televisa attorney claimed Univision breached its contract with Grupo Televisa by failing to pay more $100 million in royalties. He accused the U.S. Spanish-language network of having “stalled, delayed and misled” Televisa auditors. That’s why they want out of their contract with Univision.
Meanwhile, Univision’s lawyer, said that while some accounting mistakes were made in “good faith” by Univision, the evidence will show Univision was right on most counts and that “Univision is not violating its contract, not cheating.” He claims Univision has paid Televisa more than $1 billion in royalties over the years.
If Televisa wins the lawsuit, they could renegotiate the terms of the 25 yr-contract with Univision or take their programming elsewhere… like to rival Telemundo.
Univision fills about 80% of their prime time slots on its three U.S. networks with Televisa content. According to analysts, advertising from Televisa programming generates about 35% of Univision’s $1.6 billion in television revenue.