Fox Sports Midwest is scheduled to televise 15 Kansas City Royals games from July until the end of the season.

Unlike some of the team’s earlier games, Lawrence residents will actually be able to see those 15 games because Fox Sports Net is returning to Sunflower Broadband’s lineup July 1.

Sunflower Broadband had dropped the cable sports network in January, depriving local sports fans of Royals coverage, Colorado Avalanche hockey and numerous college events.

“They dramatically increased their rate and didn’t give us enough time to survey our customers,” Sunflower Broadband general manager Patrick Knorr said. “We didn’t want to automatically pass that increase on to our customers.”

The cable provider has surveyed its customers since then, and the most-requested channel was National Geographic. Fox Sports Net was second, followed by the Hallmark Channel.

In July, Fox Sports and National Geographic will be added to Sunflower Broadband’s expanded-basic package, while Hallmark will join the digital lineup.

Expanded basic’s rate will increase $3 to $34.95. The increase includes $1 for the additional channels and $2 to cover increased costs of existing programs.

Sunflower Broadband marketing director Dana Gore said programming costs have risen 20 percent every year for the last four years.

“Our goal every time we make a program decision is to find out what people want and make it as affordable as we can,” she said.

Sunflower Broadband tried to accommodate as many viewers as possible by packaging two diverse channels together.

“About as many customers don’t want Fox Sports as the number who want it back,” Knorr said. “So we’re going to have people unhappy regardless of what we do.”

At least one customer was ecstatic to have the network back on the air.

“I think it’s terrific,” said Lawrence resident Bob Davis, who is the TV voice of the Royals. “The games will be back on, and Big 12 football will be on in the fall. As a viewer, I’ve missed it.”

Davis and former Royals pitcher Paul Splittorff will broadcast about 80 baseball games this year, including 30 on Fox Sports Net.

Davis said his son Steven, a Kansas University student, has driven to Topeka to watch some of the games while Fox Sports Network was off the air in Lawrence.

“A lot of games, such as tonight’s, wouldn’t be on in Lawrence while they are on in Topeka, Kansas City and other places,” Davis said during a phone interview Tuesday night from Comiskey Park in Chicago before the Royals played the White Sox. “I’m happy.”