Oceanic Time Warner Cable has pledged to debut its University of Hawaii Channel in nine days despite rival Hawaiian Telcom’s challenge of Oceanic’s exclusivity with the Federal Communications Commission.

"All scheduled events are on track," Oceanic president Bob Barlow said Tuesday after a press conference that was to have announced the launch was canceled. It is the second time in three months a scheduled press conference regarding the launch was called off.

Barlow said the cancellation was because, "We want to make sure we have everything right before we go ahead" and said programming would not be affected. The Aug. 19 Rainbow Wahine soccer match with Washington State is the first UH event Oceanic said it is scheduled to show.

Earlier this month Hawaiian Telcom’s attorneys filed a letter with the FCC claiming Oceanic has refused to make the UH programming available, constituting, "an unfair act or practice, the purpose or effect of which is to hinder significantly (HT’s) ability to provide competing video services in the Hawaii marketplace," according to the filing.

Oceanic this summer took over the UH contract from KFVE, which had shown the school’s sporting events for 28 years. Under terms of the agreement, Oceanic guarantees UH $2.3 million per year plus a portion of proceeds beyond designated levels.

But the landscape has changed significantly in the past two months. First, a decision by the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., allowed the FCC to require regional sports networks to share programming with other video providers.

Then, Hawaiian Telcom was awarded a 15-year cable franchise by the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and began negotiating with Oceanic for use of video programming.

Hawaiian Telcom released a statement Tuesday saying it reached agreement with Oceanic’s corporate headquarters to share video programming on UH pay-per-view events. Hawaiian Telcom said it will show the same 17 events (nine football games and eight basketball games) as Oceanic and said it will match Oceanic’s pricing.

In addition, Hawaiian Telcom said, "the companies are in discussions regarding other televised UH sports," an apparent reference to the rest of the programming that will make up Oceanic’s UH Channel.