Charter Renews Call for Dismissal of Univision Breach Claims
The Univision/Charter Communications contract that expired June 30 didn't contain any requirement that Charter renew it, so there's no cause of action under New York state law for failing to renew, the cable operator said in a filing Friday in…
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New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan in support of its motion to dismiss the broadcaster's breach of contract and good faith and fair dealing claims (see 1609060069). Charter said Univision's breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing claim also fails because it's duplicative of the broadcaster's breach of contract claim and it tries to argue the media company had a right to renegotiate for market rates and new terms but can't point to any such right in the contract. The two sides disagree about the effect Charter's purchase of Time Warner Cable had on the contracts governing Univision programming, but that separate argument will be addressed in Univision's declaratory judgment claim and Charter's counterclaim, to be filed later, the operator said. It also said it plans to file a counterclaim against Univision for breach of the most-favored-nation clause in the TWC contract, "which has resulted in millions of dollars of contractual damages." Univision didn't comment Monday. It's suing Charter, claiming license fees in its TWC agreement apply to only the legacy systems and only through this year (see 1607080022); Fox News network is pursuing a similar complaint (see 1607200065).