UH PPV package goes football-only

Pay-per-view for University of Hawaii sports will return to an all-football lineup for the first time in nearly a decade, leaving all other UH events available without a premium.

Oceanic Time Warner Cable will offer seven of UH’s 12 games to subscribers, beginning with the Sept. 21 meeting at Nevada. That’s one more game than was available in 2012. The remaining five games will be on various cable stations.

UH games against Nevada, Fresno State, San Jose State, UNLV, Colorado State, Wyoming and Army are included in the package, which may be ordered from Oceanic beginning Aug. 1.

A PPV season ticket will cost $415 for Oahu renewal customers who order by Sept. 20, with neighbor island renewal subscribers paying $250. New orders are priced at $450 on Oahu and $270 on the neighbor islands.

Individual games will be $75 on Oahu and $45 on the neighbor islands.

Current football season-ticket holders can purchase a three-away-game package (Nevada, UNLV and Wyoming) for $99, a $126 savings.

Purchases will include a same-night re-broadcast to begin 41⁄2 hours after kickoff.

"We want to be there for the fans who can’t or don’t want to go to Aloha Stadium," said Dan Schmidt, general manager and executive producer of Oceanic’s UH sports. "If you can’t be there, we’ll take you there and supply the pregame and postgame review."

UH athletic director Ben Jay said, "This offers a great benefit for our fans, especially those on the neighbor islands."

Since 2005, the PPV lineup has included a mix of Rainbow Wahine volleyball and men’s and women’s basketball events.

But this year marks a return to just football, which has been far and away the most popular feature of the offerings since the inception of PPV in 2002.

"Football is what drives this package," Schmidt said.

Last year, for example, non-football events are said to have accounted for less than 10 percent of individual buys. In addition, non-football events were historically used to help fill out the lineup since, under previous conference contracts, ESPN had the right to grab football games during the season on 12-day notice.

This year, in the school’s second season in the Mountain West Conference, UH officials have said they do not expect to lose any games to ESPN.

Former UH coach Dick Tomey will do analysis on the broadcasts, joining Robert Kekaula, who returns as the play-by-play voice.