University of Hawai'i fans will be offered an expanded 19-event pay-per-view sports package this year, the largest selection in the six years KFVE, Oceanic Time Warner Cable and the school have combined to make the games available to subscribers.

That's a 26-percent rise in events that will come without a price increase for Neighbor Island subscribers but with a modest overall rise on O'ahu, according to John Fink, vice president and general manager of KFVE, which produces the games.

Neighbor Island viewers will pay the same as last year whether as renewal customers ($135), new subscribers ($175) or on an individual-buy basis ($25-$30). "We know not many can come to the games, so we wanted to keep the prices the same," Fink said.

On O'ahu, the price for a renewal package rises from $285 to $330, through the actual price, per event, drops from $19 to $17.37. For new subscribers, the package price rises from $350 to $380 while the charge per event drops from $23.33 to $20.

O'ahu single-event football buys will cost $55 to $65, depending upon the opponent, up from $50 to $60 last year.

The package will include eight football, six Rainbow Wahine volleyball and five men's basketball games. It will be the most road football games (Louisiana Tech, Nevada-Las Vegas and Idaho) shown on pay-per-view. ESPN will carry the other two, San Jose State and Nevada, along with home games against Boise State and Washington.

With UH football coming off an 11-3 season and returning much of a record-setting offense, including quarterback Colt Brennan, Fink said he believes UH will do well on both ends. "This should be a great year for both attendance and pay-per-view," Fink said.

Although overall pay-per-view sales dropped again last year, revenues were up to a record $2.7 million due to a hike in prices, Fink said. KFVE received approximately $1.3 million, while Oceanic got $965,000 and UH $410,000.

The UH football schedule includes two Division I-AA opponents, Northern Colorado and Charleston Southern, but "I wouldn't say (selling pay-per-view) is more difficult; it is just a unique landscape this year," said John McNamara, associate athletic director at UH.

The largest offering of volleyball will include UH's Oct. 21 match at Nebraska, the defending national champion.

This is in addition to what Fink said would be more than 100 UH events shown on KFVE, making it, he said, the largest inventory of any college sports program in the country.

UH football games will be shown twice on a pay-per-view basis Saturday, and will also be shown for free on KFVE on Sunday mornings, the third year of the practice. Free, delayed telecast of home games are no longer shown same night.

Pay-per-view began in 2002 as a way for UH to maximize revenue and attract fans who were not able to attend games. In 2005, in exchange for an up-front guarantee of $1.75 million annually for TV rights, UH began turning over the bulk of pay-per-view receipts to KFVE. Until ESPN began taking bigger chunks of UH football games, KFVE paid UH $1.2 million.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com.