The University of Hawaii’s first go at pay-per-view for football was in 1984. It was brief, and Rick Blangiardi remembers it well because he was there. He was KHNL’s vice president and general manager and color commentator for the football telecasts.
It was the first year of local TV for the Rainbow Warriors. And it was against BYU. Expecting a sellout, the station sold 3,000 pay-per-view subscriptions.
"Even then it hurt our attendance," Blangiardi said. "I remember (athletic director) Stan Sheriff telling me, ‘We’re not doing that again.’"
Blangiardi, now the general manager at Hawaii News Now, was not involved with UH football telecasts in 2002 when the current pay per view model was introduced.
It has survived more than a decade amid much disagreement about what it brings to or takes from the state’s most prominent sports program. Is it an essential revenue producer, or does live TV just suck paying customers away from Aloha Stadium and other venues and actually cost the athletic department money, as well as the excitement and prestige of full stands?
PPV packages for the upcoming season go on sale Thursday, at $415 a pop. Blangiardi is among those who think that is money that should and would be spent on tickets.
Hawaii News Now — which umbrellas KGMB, KHNL and KFVE — plans to make a run at the TV rights KHNL and KFVE held for so long until Oceanic Time Warner Cable took full control two years ago.
If successful, Blangiardi’s first priority is to get the turnstiles going.
"Job One is to fill the stadium. (Pay-per-view) is not the right business model when you have a half-empty stadium," he said.
He knows that even without a live TV option sellouts would be unlikely this year as UH continues to rebuild in its second year with Norm Chow as head coach, coming off a 3-9 record in 2012. He knows the product must improve, is confident it will, and adds that low attendance at football games is "systemic."
Another argument against pay-per-view is that the smaller crowd that results from the availability of live TV takes away a significant amount of UH’s homefield advantage. Blangiardi says the team deserves better.
"Nothing compares with that feeling you get of a full stadium there to support you. It makes a difference," the former UH player and coach said.
UH doesn’t want to drop pay-per-view because it is part of what brings in $2.3 million annually in rights fees. The way Oceanic makes some of that back is by selling ads to sponsors who are much more interested in investing in live telecasts than delayed ones.
And, as someone close to the situation told me, "It’s not like you pull the plug on pay-per-view and everyone rushes the stadium. It goes so much deeper than that."
That’s true, and football attendance is down in many markets as alternative viewing options continually improve. But it’s also clear UH is addicted to the quick fix of pay-per-view revenue, at the cost of an expedited dwindling of game attendance.
———
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783.
