Posted on: Friday, June 25, 2004
Oceanic to raise rates for live UH football
Advertiser Staff
Televised University of Hawai'i home football games have become the centerpiece of a block party in Rob and Sweetie Nelson's corner of Enchanted Lake, where neighbors turn fall Saturday nights into a pot luck event.
With as many as 20 people gathering around the television screen, Rob said his group will live with the upcoming rise in pay-per-view charges. "If it isn't too much, I don't think it would bother us," he said.
At least seven UH home games will be offered via pay-per-view this season, and O'ahu subscribers will face an increase of $10 per game when ordering by individual games instead of the season package, Oceanic Cablevision said. Neighbor Island rates will rise by $5 for individual games.
Single-game prices on O'ahu are $35 per game except for Big Ten opponent Northwestern, which will be $45. Neighbor Island prices will be $15 and $20.
The seven-game season package will cost $150 on O'ahu ($125 for renewal customers if ordered by July 31st) while the Neighbor Island cost is $55 ($40 for early renewals). Last year O'ahu season package holders paid $100 for five games ($75 for early renewals) while the Neighbor Island charge was $40.
It is the third year Oceanic has offered pay-per-view (PPV) in partnership with K5 television and the university.
With the price increases, UH projects it will realize an additional $172,000 this year. Last year UH received $628,000 and has taken in nearly $1.1 million in the two years.
This year Oceanic plans to offer every home game except the Dec. 4 game with Michigan State, which it expects ESPN to pick up under terms of the Western Athletic Conference contract. Should that game become available, it would cost $45 on O'ahu and $20 on the Neighbor Islands, Oceanic said.
UH's share of PPV revenue through the first two years of the three-year agreement has almost covered the drop in its TV rights fees. The school had received $1.3 million for 2001-02, the final year of its previous five-year TV contract with K5. It now receives $700,000.
There were an average of 10,629 subscribers per game last year, up from 9,104 in 2002 despite an increase in fees.
"This will be the third year of pay-per-view and the best year yet (because)," predicts John Fink, president and general manager K5. "We're bringing new people to UH football who don't go, can't go or won't go."
Between its average turnstile attendance and PPV sales, UH has averaged approximately 45,000 in combined ticket and subscriber sales each of the past two seasons.
Under terms of the PPV agreement, UH receives 70 percent of the first $1 million in net revenue and 33 percent of net thereafter. Oceanic, the PPV provider, and K5, which produces the games, get the remaining revenue, $467,899.
