The top executive in charge of Spanish-language broadcaster Televisa-Univision has thanked President Donald Trump for advocating on behalf of the company during its ongoing dispute with Google-owned YouTube TV.
In a social media post on Saturday, Trump complained that Google’s decision to pull channels like Univision from YouTube TV at the end of September would prove to be “very bad for Republicans in the upcoming Midterms,” referring to next year’s midterm elections.
Trump noted that Univision offered him a platform to reach Spanish-speaking Americans during last year’s presidential election cycle, during which the broadcaster produced a town hall when he was the Republican nominee.
“They were so good to me with their highest rated ever political special, and I set a Republican record in Hispanic voting,” Trump said. “Google, for the purpose of fairness, please let Univision back.”
In a post of his own, Televisa-Univision CEO Daniel Alegre thanked Trump for his advocacy, writing that Trump recognized “the impact of Univision and the importance of Hispanics.” He did not confirm whether Trump’s town hall special was Univision’s highest-rated special, as the president claimed.
“We take pride in Univision representing the voice of Hispanic America,” Alegre wrote. “It is our priority to bring Univision back to YouTube TV.”
Things between Univision and Trump have not always been smooth: During a press conference in 2015, then-candidate Trump refused to take a question from veteran journalist Jorge Ramos, telling him to “go back to Univision” before having his security detail escort him out of the venue.
“He was totally out of line last night,” Trump told NBC News after the incident. “I was asking and being asked a question from another reporter. I would have gotten to him very quickly. He stood up and started ranting like a madman.”
Ramos called the incident an “attack on the freedom of the press in the United States.”
“I was just expressing the premise of my question, which was that he couldn’t deport 11 million and that he couldn’t build a wall and that he couldn’t deny citizenship to U.S. citizens,” Ramos said. (Ramos retired from Univision last year.)
Over the past month, supporters of Spanish-language media have characterized the situation involving Google as one rooted in discrimination and politics. Some Hispanic media advocates suggested Univision was being punished for hosting its town hall event with Trump last year, when other broadcasters wouldn’t do the same.
Google says it’s all business: The tech giant justified its decision by claiming Televisa-Univision wanted higher distribution fees for its channels, which the tech giant couldn’t justify based on viewership data.
Televisa-Univision complained that Google wanted to relegate its channels into a separate Spanish-language package, which would cost a separate fee on top of YouTube TV’s $83 per month subscription price. The company likened the matter to a “Hispanic tax,” and urged Google to “do the right thing” in a national ad campaign that ran in several major metropolitan newspapers.
“Stripping access to Univision at such a critical time shows a blatant disregard for the communities we serve,” Alegre wrote in an open letter to Google last month. “We call on Google to respect its Hispanic subscribers and keep Univision within its core programming bundle.”
Ultimately, Google and Televisa-Univision weren’t able to reach a new agreement, and the channels were pulled from YouTube TV at the end of the month. YouTube TV is the second major streaming service to pull Televisa-Univision’s channels from its platform; Fubo did the same after its distribution agreement with Televisa-Univision expired in January.
Televisa-Univision channels are distributed on other streaming platforms, including DirecTV’s new Spanish-language package called “MiEspañol,” which costs $35 per month and includes dozens of other channels plus access to the ad-supported version of Vix. Televisa-Univision channels are also available on Hulu with Live TV as part of a robust distribution agreement with the Walt Disney Company.
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