Univision says that Charter is refusing to open new negotiations with the Spanish-language U.S. broadcaster after acquiring Time Warner Cable, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in the New York Supreme Court.

According to the filing, Charter is maintaining that Time Warner Cable is maintaining the cable systems that it acquired, and as a result, TWC’s existing licensing agreement with Univision should remain in place through June 2022.

“But everyone knows that is simply not true: the longstanding CEO and the senior executive team of Charter, as well as its pre- existing board of directors, now in fact manage and control all such cable systems, and virtually the entire TWC leadership team has departed,” the complain reads, notes The Hollywood Reporter.

Univision’s agreement with Charter, however, expired June 30. If Charter is truly in control of the TWC systems, it would then have to renegotiate carriage deals with Univision, and Univision contends those new fees would be much higher.

Moreover, Univision included a clause in its previous negotiations with Charter that specified: “if Charter or any of its Affiliated Companies acquired the distribution systems of another distributor, the purchased distributor would remain subject to the operative agreement between Univision and that other distributor, but only until the end of the calendar year in which the acquisition occurred. After that time, the Charter Agreement would govern the acquired systems.”

Under that clause, Charter would be required to renegotiate with Univision by the end of this year, and Univision did give Charter a six-month extension when the June 30 deadline expired.

Again according to the lawsuit, Univision attempted negotiations in May and Charter “responded with stalling, obfuscation, and refusal.” Univision also says that Charter later said that “distribution of the Univision services shall be pursuant to the terms of the TWC Agreement,” meaning that they wouldn’t expire until 2020 if the court finds in Charter’s favor.

READ MORE: The Hollywood Reporter

[Cube image of Univision CEO Randy Falco courtesy of Getty Images via THR]

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