Hawaiian Telcom has been encouraging its subscribers to file complaints with the Federal Communications Commission after it said rival cable operator Spectrum had pulled the plug “at the last minute” on its showing of Rainbow Wahine volleyball matches beginning with Friday night’s opener.
The Rainbow Wahine, under first-year coach Robyn Ah Mow-Santos, opened their season with Marquette.
Hawaiian Telcom had shown Rainbow Wahine matches locally since 2011 under an arrangement with Oceanic Time Warner Cable, Spectrum’s predecessor.
When Spectrum bought out Time Warner last year it assumed the cable operator’s exclusive rights contract with UH. The agreement runs through June 2020.
But under FCC rules Spectrum has been required to make only UH football and basketball available for purchase by Hawaiian Telcom. That’s why both continue to offer UH football on a pay-per-view basis.
In Hawaii, where UH often leads college volleyball in attendance despite having many of its matches shown live for decades, volleyball is more of an attraction than in other states.
In a statement Hawaiian Telcom said, “Hawaiian Telcom originally purchased the rights to UH sports from Oceanic Time Warner Cable in 2011, before Charter/Spectrum’s takeover. Since the launch of Hawaiian Telcom TV in 2011, this agreement has allowed our local University of Hawaii (UH) Women’s Volleyball fans to watch the games on Hawaiian Telcom TV ensuring maximum exposure for the UH athletics program and its student-athletes.
“Now, with no change in circumstance and clearly for its own financial gain, Spectrum pulled UH Wahine volleyball games from Hawaiian Telcom TV. At the last minute and with no notice, they moved the games to OC16, a channel only available on Spectrum, leaving many Hawaiian Telcom TV subscribers who are loyal UH Wahine volleyball fans with no ability to watch the games. They are allowed to get away with this anti-competitive behavior because federal laws require that they provide access to NCAA Division I football and basketball only. We fought hard to stop this, but Spectrum has refused all of our requests to purchase this content, effectively denying Hawaiian Telcom’s more than 43,000 local subscribers access to these games.”
Hawaiian Telcom said it “continues to explore all available remedies to fight for our loyal UH sports fans and enable them to watch these games on Hawaiian Telcom TV as they have done for the past six years. We are encouraging our customers who are frustrated to voice their concerns & file a complaint with the FCC at consumercomplaints.fcc.gov.”
Spectrum spokespeople did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment.
