UH hoping live football offsets TV revenue loss

Advertiser Staff

The University of Hawai'i is breaking new ground with a local television contract that will rely on pay-per-view sales to offset a 46 percent cut in guaranteed rights fees.

Final details of a three-year, $2.1 million agreement with K5 to broadcast the school's athletic events, which was reported in The Advertiser June 30, were announced yesterday.

K5 had paid $1.3 million this just-completed school year, the final year of a five-year, $6.2 million contract.

Under the new agreement, UH will offer seven live telecasts of home football games on a pay-per-view basis for the first time this season. (ESPN has the rights to the Nov. 30 UH-Alabama game.)

O'ahu viewers will be charged $12.95 per live game, while Neighbor Island viewers, which used to receive telecasts live, will pay $5 per game for the first year. The pay-per-view games will be distributed by Oceanic Cablevision.

As in the past, UH home games will be telecast by K5 on same-night delay at 10 p.m.

The university will receive 70 percent of the pay-per-view fees on the first $1 million. Once the university revenues total $1.4 million in a year, including the $700,000 rights fee, the share of the proceeds will be divided equally among UH, K5 and Oceanic.

"This agreement guarantees the university a fair financial return for broadcast rights for UH sports," said Paul Costello, vice president for external affairs and University relations. "It also offers fans an enormous amount of continued sports coverage free in addition to the first live coverage on pay-per-view for O'ahu."

KHNL-News 8 and then its sister station, K5, which was created 10 years ago, have owned the television rights to UH sports since 1984.