Oceanic-Time Warner Communications is going, although the company website still boasts the TWC name.

Say “Hello” to Oceanic-Charter Communications, which apparently will soon carry Charter’s Spectrum brand.

I’ve been wondering about how little local news coverage there’s been the takeover of Oceanic Cable’s parent company, Time Warner Cable, by Charter Communications. The deal closed last month, but it barely made a ripple here.

The Star-Advertiser ran an Associated Press national story when the deal closed, but I don’t recall anything local.

Since Oceanic has had such a large presence statewide for so long, the silence is noticeable.

The newspaper came around to the issue through the back door on Sunday in a column about control of broadcast rights of Hawaii high school athletics (“Hawaiian Telcom hopes to gain access to high school sports programming“).

The article reports on questions raised about Oceanic’s current lock on high school and UH sports.

It references comments Hawaiian Telcom filed with the FCC as part of the Charter-Time Warner docket.

I found two, the first dated August 25, 2014 and the second dated October 13, 2015.

The Star-Advertiser reported:

Oceanic, the dominant provider in the state with a reported 76 percent video market share and 69 percent of consumer broadband sales, has exclusive contracts with the University of Hawaii, the public high school Oahu Interscholastic Association and the Hawaii High School Athletics Association, which represents all schools, public and private, for state championships.

And then this caught my eye:

The OIA reportedly receives approximately $100,000 from their contracts with Oceanic, with additional monies paid to the HHSAA, but parties declined to discuss terms.

Wait. Is it possible that the broadcast contract covering Oahu’s public school teams is exempt from disclosure by routing it through the nonprofit OIA? Does the Department of Education know what the terms of the deal are? Is the contract a public record?

Interesting questions.

I hope we see some clarification of this point in light of the state’s public records law.