Dominican born US Congressmember Adriano Espaillat is using his influence to try to convince AT&T’s U-Verse and DirectTV to reinstate Television Dominicana. Television Dominicana brings Dominican Republic-sourced shows to viewers in the United States.
Latin Times cites The Business in Television: “There are 2.3 million Dominicans living in the United States, the fourth largest Spanish-speaking population, but AT&T and DIRECTV carry other networks targeting smaller population groups. Among those are three channels from Spain provided by a company partnered with DIRECTV, including the channel that replaced Television Dominicana.
“Despite our best efforts to negotiate continued distribution, AT&T’s proposals made access to Televisión Dominicana limited and more expensive for the Dominican community,” said a spokesman for the channel.
Espaillat has called on the Boards of both AT&T and Time Warner to consider the importance of Televisión Dominicana in the lives of countless Dominican Americans in light of the proposed merger between the two companies that could reduce media diversity.
“The recent decision by AT&T to remove Televisión Dominicana from its lineup shows cultural disregard, indifference, and lack in the network’s efforts to promote diversity among its programming. Promoting diverse voices and minority representation are critical to our success in telecommunications and the marketplace. I strongly encourage both parties to return to the negotiation table to find the best solution in the interests for my constituents and for their customers,” says Espaillat.
Dominicans living in the US are motivated to call AT&T and DirecTV to complain. At Tel 1-800-531-5000.
Read more:
Latin Times
Television Dominicana
31 October 2017
