President Donald Trump has weighed in on YouTube TV’s ongoing carriage dispute with TelevisaUnivision, calling the programming blackout “very bad for Republicans.”
“I hope Univision, a great and very popular Hispanic network can get BACK onto the very amazing Google/YouTube. It has been taken out of their package which is VERY BAD for Republicans in the upcoming midterms,” he wrote in a Truth Social post over the weekend. “They were so good to me with their highest rated ever political special and I set a Republican record for Hispanic voting. Google, for the purposes of FAIRNESS, please let Univision BACK!”
A TelevisaUnivision spokesperson directed TheWrap to an X post from CEO Daniel Alegre, in which he thanked Trump for “recognizing the impact of Univision and the importance of Hispanics.”
“We take pride in Univision representing the voice of Hispanic America. It is our priority to bring Univision back to YouTubeTV,” Alegre added.
TelevisaUnivision programming went dark on YouTube TV on Sept. 30 after the two sides failed to reach a new carriage deal before the current contract’s expiration, resulting in a blackout of the network’s programming for the latter’s roughly 10 million subscribers.
“TelevisaUnivision has over 160 million subscribers and billions of views across YouTube, where they generate ad revenue from their content. On our paid live TV subscription service, YouTube TV, however, TelevisaUnivision only represents a tiny fraction of overall consumption,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement. “Since we have not reached a new agreement with them, their content is no longer available on YouTube TV.”
In addition to TelevisaUnivision’s ViX streaming service, the network’s content is available on YouTube’s main platform, where they have more than 10 million subscribers. On average, there were over 9 billion views of Spanish language content daily on the main YouTube app globally in June. YouTube TV also offers news content through its recent renewal with Fox and new agreements with C-SPAN and OANN.
TelevisaUnivision first began warning viewers of a potential programming blackout last month. At the time, it said the Google-owned platform was attempting to remove Univision from its core line-up and move it to a Spanish-only add-on package. It argued the move would force millions of Hispanic households to pay 18% more for its local news, live sports and entertainment content, calling it “discriminatory” and an “abuse of its market power.”
YouTube TV has argued that its carriage decisions are based on viewer consumption and pricing and that it offered a renewal that was “in line with the performance of their channel and the value of this content to YouTube TV subscribers today.”
“We remain open to negotiating an agreement that reflects their performance on YouTube TV. Until then, their content remains unavailable on YouTube TV,” the spokesperson added.. “We encourage viewers to continue watching TelevisaUnivision’s content on their YouTube channels or on their streaming platform, ViX.”
Trump’s post comes after YouTube TV reached a new carriage deal with NBCUniversal on Thursday, which includes the launch of NBC Sports Network on YouTube TV later this fall and Peacock’s availability as a subscription through YouTube Primetime Channels.
