For the longest time the Interscholastic League of Honolulu was camera-shy when it came to the TV airing of its league football games.

While the public school Oahu Interscholastic Association games have been a staple on Oceanic Time Warner (now Spectrum) cable, celebrating a 30th anniversary this season, you were lucky to catch once-in-a-blue moon glimpses of private school league contests on any platform.

If you wanted to see marquee matchups, Saint Louis-Kamehameha, Punahou-‘Iolani or a contest of consequence from anywhere but a seat in a stadium or campus bleachers, good luck.

That changes this season with Spectrum having struck an unprecedented multi-year deal with the ILH.

The ILH became the final piece in the cable operator cornering the market on high school football in particular and high school sports in general here. Now Spectrum’s inventory includes the OIA, the ILH individually, their football alliance and the Hawaii High School Athletic Association games to be shown live across OC16, Xcast and XCast2 platforms.

High school football coverage debuts with the Aug. 3 Farrington-Leilehua game. The Sept. 15 ‘Iolani-Damien and Saint Louis-Punahou games will be the first ILH league contests.

Terms of the lucrative ILH deal, which takes in all 37 sports, were not announced apart from the “multi-year” term which a corporate spokeswoman would not expand upon, but word is that the ILH will receive in the neighborhood of six figures, its largest media rights deal ever.

It is a reentry into the TV picture that has been a long time in coming. The “old” 10-team ILH of the 1960s was featured in a KGMB “game of the week” format, a period when high school football was the dominant sports property in town. But those telecasts ceased with the acrimonious 1970 separation of public and private schools that sent both on their own paths.

While the OIA eventually found a home on cable, the ILH made just sporadic appearances here and there.

Over the years, ILH school and league officials cited concerns about watering down their the gate and more lofty pretensions of not wanting to over-emphasize football or put pressure on students. This despite football nevertheless being counted upon to be the engine that pulled the financial train.

A brief pay-per-view football experiment more than a decade ago and attempt at delayed telecasts did not last long.

But we are reminded it is a vastly altered landscape as they take the field today. Not only in terms of social media exposure and widespread independent video, but the inaugural peace-in-our-time three tier OIA-ILH alliance that debuts this season.

“First of all (credit) to the ILH for recognizing that a partnership with Spectrum is to everyone’s advantage,” said Dan Schmidt, senior director, coordinating producer for Spectrum networks. “We had a great lineup before and, now, we’ve taken it to the next level with the help of the ILH and the cooperation of the OIA and HHSAA.”

After decades of being largely invisible on TV, the ILH is getting back in front of the cameras at a time when high school football in general has a lot to show off.