DISH drops the ball with decision not to renew Univision Deportes

DISH Network has dropped the ball by deciding not to renew their agreement with Univision Deportes Network, thereby eliminating several important soccer leagues from their programming.

According to Univision, DISH’s Hispanic subscribers have lost access to more than 1,100 top soccer matches and major tournaments each year.

As the number two most-watched sports network on DISH’s satellite service, this decision comes on top of DISH’s previous removal of Univision and its other networks and stations. Per Univision, DISH has “now gutted its Spanish-language offering, which until recently was a core part of its business.”

A statement from Univision said that the television company has made every reasonable effort and beyond to reach an agreement, but DISH refused to make a deal that was in the best interests of subscribers. The statement continued to mention that given that DISH experienced its worst-ever quarterly subscriber losses after dropping the bulk of Univision’s networks and stations, its unwillingness to recognize the power of Hispanic consumers and the popularity of Univision’s leading news, sports and entertainment programming is bizarre and disappointing.

In the short term, DISH customers no longer have access to any Univision networks, meaning they can’t watch the Mexico vs. Argentina doubleheader of friendlies in the next week, no Liga MX week 17 and playoffs and no USMNT vs. England and Italy.