AssasinK
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Spectrum Sports Hawaii has shut down, and the reason is the interesting part. University of Hawaii athletics moved to Hawaii News Now from July 1 under a four year deal, with primary telecasts on K5. Free, over the air, statewide. The deal guarantees at least 110 home events a year, all available football, both basketball programmes and both volleyball programmes, plus selected baseball, softball and women's soccer, and it comes with a free round the clock streaming channel of classic games. Reported value is around 7.5 million dollars a year, roughly 30 million across the term, which is a step up from what the cable deal paid.
Every other story in this space runs the other way. Rights leave free television, land behind a subscription, then behind a second subscription when the first one loses them. Here a channel that had held those rights since 2011, running back to a cable access service that started in 1976, has been outbid by broadcast. Spectrum keeps OC16 and the high school sports on it, but the sports channel itself is finished.
What that means practically is a lot of households in Hawaii need a working tuner and an antenna again. Plenty of people binned both years ago, and plenty of newer sets are sold to people who have never once run a channel scan. If you are on one of the outer islands, reception planning is now part of watching your team.
Is anyone else seeing regional rights go back to broadcast, or is this a one-off caused by conference money rather than a trend?
Every other story in this space runs the other way. Rights leave free television, land behind a subscription, then behind a second subscription when the first one loses them. Here a channel that had held those rights since 2011, running back to a cable access service that started in 1976, has been outbid by broadcast. Spectrum keeps OC16 and the high school sports on it, but the sports channel itself is finished.
What that means practically is a lot of households in Hawaii need a working tuner and an antenna again. Plenty of people binned both years ago, and plenty of newer sets are sold to people who have never once run a channel scan. If you are on one of the outer islands, reception planning is now part of watching your team.
Is anyone else seeing regional rights go back to broadcast, or is this a one-off caused by conference money rather than a trend?
