Tag Archives: Michele Gumabao

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PVL Returns to S+A After Controversial Livestream Issue

ABS-CBN has finally heeded the call of disgruntled PVL fans.

It was announced earlier this week that ABS-CBN Sports would air weekend Premier Volleyball League games on S+A in addition to the standard livestream broadcasts online. This came after last weekend’s livestream of the PVL on Tour in Tuguegarao was plagued with technical difficulties that led to many complaints from volleyball fans on social media.

Despite the good news, Wednesday PVL matches will remain exclusive to livestream while S+A will continue to reair UAAP Season 79 women’s volleyball games. The full televised slate will only arrive once the semifinals and finals roll around.

The first televised PVL matches since opening day two weeks ago was the second stop of the PVL on Tour, this time in Batangas. Unlike last weekend in Tuguegarao where only four teams saw action, all eight teams, including Batangas native Alyssa Valdez’s Creamline Cool Smashers, participated in the provincial meet.

The next few weekends in the PVL Reinforced Conference schedule will take place in yet-to-be-determined venues. That said, there is a possibility that these matches will remain part of the PVL on Tour series, with the announcement to take place within the next several days.

Despite a partial television schedule, volleyball fans should feel more than satisfied with the response that ABS-CBN Sports gave to them. After all, the PVL has suffered long enough that the need to air more games on television will be key towards restoring the league’s credibility.

Because when the PVL has crowd drawers like Alyssa Valdez and Michele Gumabao, chances are the league will thrive if only they are given the proper exposure and treatment by its broadcast partner. So far, however, the PVL had been on the wrong end of ABS-CBN Sports’ stick, being drowned out by reruns of last season’s UAAP women’s volleyball matches.

To their credit, ABS-CBN Sports listened to its viewers for the sake of the PVL broadcasts, which is a good thing. Now it will be up to them to keep the dice rolling.

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Philippines, Sports, television

Ruining the PVL: ABS-CBN’s Coverage Setup Leaves Fans Angry

It was more of the same result.

The second season of the Premier Volleyball League picked up from where the first season left off, with ABS-CBN Sports airing only a few select games on S+A while leaving the rest of the schedule to livestream. After only a week, however, fans have had enough and voiced their negative sentiments on social media.

This past weekend, the PVL held its games in Tuguegarao featuring Pocari-Air Force Lady Warriors, PayMaya High Flyers, Creamline Cool Smashers and BanKo Perlas. While the four games involving the four teams were compelling and exciting for the fans in attendance, those who watched the game online were dissatisfied over the broadcast.

Saturday’s Pocari-Air Force vs. PayMaya and Creamline vs. Banko livestreams encountered numerous delays and power interruptions that left volleyball fans seething with anger. In response, ABS-CBN Sports Production head Vince Rodriguez explained the motive behind the setup before ending with a seemingly positive remark.

Emphasis on the word ‘discussing’ because for the time being games of the PVL will still be aired only on livestream while talks for more TV coverage are in progress. Case in point: the matches that will take place later today.

As for the schedule on S+A, the network will broadcast a replay of UAAP women’s volleyball as it was the case last weekend. Talk about not moving on.

Suffice to say, the PVL is back to a familiar situation when they were still known as the Shakey’s V-League, in which it encountered TV coverage issues. ABS-CBN Sports was supposed to be the league’s savior when it arrived three years ago, but instead of making the league more exposed to the public, it only worsened its perception among volleyball fans.

Yes the league is proud to have Alyssa Valdez and Michele Gumabao as its standard-bearers, but unless ABS-CBN Sports does something drastic to appease its fans, the PVL will fall behind the shadows of its younger but emerging rival in the Philippine SuperLiga. The time is definitely now for ABS-CBN to take the PVL very seriously and stop pretending to be its pauper.

If this promise is not fulfilled, it might be high time for volleyball fans to switch to the PSL instead, where television and livestream coverage are limitless. Your call, ABS-CBN Sports.

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Sunday All Stars Revamp as Ratings Fall; PBB All-In Criticized

As ABS-CBN’s ‘ASAP’ continue to dominate Sunday afternoon viewership and social media impact, rival ‘Sunday All Stars’ of GMA Network decided to once again change its format. This was according to a news report from LionhearTV.

The newly-reformatted ‘Sunday All Stars’  now airs for only 90 minutes, while moving its airtime to 1:00 p.m. But what made the show so different these days was the absence of several of its mainstays, such as Jay-R, Frencheska Farr and Yassi Pressman. Jay-R, in particular, was disappointed about the reformat that he made his departure public via a tweet to one of his fans.

The report also stated that the show will now feature a mix of regular and semi-regular artists that would appear in every episode. In addition, the group competition will be axed in favor of individual battles between two artists, while the show’s judges will no longer sit to evaluate their performances.

Clearly, GMA has to be frustrated with ‘Sunday All Stars’. With a more stripped-down approach, and with its younger mainstays absent, ‘Sunday All Stars’ is becoming a program without any sense of direction. And that weak concoction won’t help reverse the show’s fortunes. A change is definitely needed for GMA to make their Sundays more relevant.

Meanwhile, the new season of ‘Pinoy Big Brother’ received the brunt of criticism from most netizens, leading to the hashtag #PBBScripted, which trended throughout Sunday and into Monday.

Most netizens took their frustrations at the program’s celebrity selections, claiming that they took away spots from ordinary folks who actually auditioned for the show. Netizens also claim that the new season of PBB only allows people with good looks and wealth to enter the hallowed Big Brother house, while others claim that celebrities will have a huge advantage over the ordinary housemates in the voting process.

Among the notable celebrities for the season were volleyball player Michele Gumabao, Phoemela Barranda’s daughter Nichole, teen actress Jane Oineza, Chariz Solomon’s twin brothers Bobby and Robert (aka Fourth and Fifth), and DLSU Green Archer Thomas Torres’ brother Axel. At the last minute, host Alex Gonzaga decided to join as a housemate rather than hosting the reality show.

Despite the criticisms, the opening night of ‘Pinoy Big Brother: All In’ is expected to be a ratings hit, and with the presence of these celebrities, it should also be expected that more people will tune in to watch them deal with the tasks made by none other than ‘Big Brother’ himself. ‘Pinoy Big Brother: All In’ will have an afternoon ‘Uber’ show on weekdays, and a regular evening show that would culminate with a live eviction show on most Sundays. In addition, PBB will have an online show on its website.

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