ABS-CBN Sports to Televise All Games of the PVL Open Conference

“WE NEED IT!”

This is perhaps the plea of volleyball fans as the Premier Volleyball League enters its season-ending Open Conference. Having said that, ABS-CBN’s decision to finally televise every match of the Open Conference came as part of a harsh lesson learned during the Reinforced Conference.

Back in May, ABS-CBN Sports received plenty of criticism for the live streaming issues that took place during a PVL On Tour stop at Tuguegarao. Reluctantly, the network was forced to air weekend games on S+A for the remainder of the tournament before it televised every game of the finals.

Regarding the PVL Collegiate Conference, the exhibition nature of the tournament meant that only the first playdate and the finals were aired on S+A while the other games were aired on live stream. But ABS-CBN Sports, for its part, was able to address its concerns on live stream access by offering the PVL games on YouTube free of charge.

Which leads to the Open Conference. In part two of getting things right with volleyball fans, ABS-CBN Sports announced that all games of the tournament will be aired on LIGA while select matches will be televised on S+A.

The coverage format goes like this:

1. All games live on LIGA, ABS-CBN Sports YouTube channel and sports.abs-cbn.com/livestream/pvl
2. Second game of Sunday doubleheader live on S+A.
3. First game of Sunday doubleheader airs on a delayed basis after the live second game on S+A.
4. Saturday doubleheaders air on a delayed basis every Monday at 2:00 p.m. on S+A.

The PVL Open Conference began Saturday with a doubleheader at the FilOil Flying V Centre. The opener meant that an MPBL game between the Bataan Risers and Cebu Sharks was not televised on S+A to give way to the live match between Banko Perlas Spikers and Iriga-Navy Oragons, a concession that was met with approval from volleyball fans.

The ongoing tournament will also feature Reinforced Conference champion Creamline Cool Smashers, Pocari Sweat Air Force, PetroGazz Angels, Tacloban Fighting Warays, Akari-Adamson Lady Falcons and Motolite-Ateneo Lady Eagles. Here is the entire tournament schedule.

Updated #PVLOpenConference 2018 women's division schedule
as of Sept 17, 2018 #PVLonABSCBN #PVLonLIGA pic.twitter.com/vwjk8MLylz

— Premiere Volleyball League (@PVLph) September 19, 2018

About the only drawback here is that LIGA is only available on SkyCable and SkyDirect. But other than that, volleyball fans couldn’t get any happier.

Good luck to all the teams in the ongoing PVL Open Conference. And thanks to ABS-CBN Sports for giving the fans what they want.

Advertisement

New Name for Lifestyle, Plus Toonami Gets the Ax

Lifestyle (Network) has a new name.

On April 2, 2018, Lifestyle was renamed and rebranded as the Metro Channel. Named after the high-end lifestyle magazine of the same name, Metro Channel will feature almost the same content as its predecessor, with a focus on food, fashion and travel programs.

Some of the programs that will air on Metro Channel include locally-produced shows such as ‘The Crawl’, ‘Casa Daza’, ‘At the Table’, ‘G Diaries’ and ‘Pia’s Postcards’. It will also feature foreign canned programs such as ‘Masterchef’, ‘America’s Next Top Model’ and ‘The Great British Bakeoff’.

Operated by ABS-CBN affiliate Creative Programs Inc., Metro Channel was originally launched on July 24, 1999 as the Lifestyle Network. It was later rebranded as ‘Lifestyle’ in 2015 with increased emphasis towards programs concerning food, fashion and travel.

Metro Channel will continue to air on SkyCable channel 52 and on high definition channel 174. It is also available on SkyDirect channel 31 and on select cable operators in the Philippines.

Easter weekend also saw the demise of Toonami, a cable channel operated by Turner Broadcasting. After nearly six years on the air, Toonami was officially shut down on March 31, 2018.

A sister channel of Cartoon Network and Boomerang, Toonami was known to air a selection of anime and American action cartoon series. Among the notable programs that were aired on Toonami include ‘Batman’, ‘Teen Titans’, ‘Ben 10’, ‘Inazuma Eleven Go’, ‘Yu-Gi-Oh’, ‘Yo-Kai Watch’ and ‘Dragon Ball Z’.

The shutdown of Toonami had huge repercussions to Filipino anime fans who still mourn the loss of local anime channel Hero. At the time it was taken off the air, Toonami was broadcasting the ongoing ‘Dragon Ball Super’ series which has yet to be launched on Filipino free TV.

It remains to be seen if Cartoon Network will be able to revive the Toonami primetime block to accommodate its displaced programs. But for anime fans who are looking for other ways to watch their favorite programs, there are other options such as cable channels Animax and AniPlus, as well as anime streaming websites.

Analyzing the New ABS-CBN Regional Channel

The new ABS-CBN Regional Channel gives viewers access to virtually all programs of the Regional Network Group in any dialect. (Logo courtesy of ABS-CBN)

Living up to the Kapamilya moniker, the ABS-CBN family of networks recently added a new channel.

On August 1, the ABS-CBN Regional Channel was officially launched. The new channel’s premise is simple: it is a 24/7 cable channel that consists of programs straight from the ABS-CBN Regional Network Group.

Programs that air on the ABS-CBN Regional Channel include:

• TV Patrol
• Bagong Umaga Bagong Balita
• Maayong Buntag Kapamilya
• Agri Tayo Dito
• MagTVna
• Kapamilya Mas Winner Ka
• Special events such as local festivals
• MOR FM radio programs
• ABS-CBN AM radio programs

In essence, the channel should benefit Metro Manila and other regional viewers who originate from their home provinces. Those who want to watch the latest news and information from their home town can watch the ABS-CBN Regional Channel in any place and any time.

All programs on the ABS-CBN Regional Channel will continue to air on their respective regional networks and in their original timeslots. That said, the channel will only complement rather than replace the entire Regional Network Group by accessing content from each station.

Even though ABS-CBN has already established a channel for the sake of its regional viewers, they still need to solve a long-standing issue regarding the need for unified programming. Some programs of the ABS-CBN Regional Network Group continue to air in place of select shows that would otherwise air in Metro Manila and other relay stations.

That said, it is the responsibility of ABS-CBN to give every region access to all of its programs in concert to that of Metro Manila. Though the ABS-CBN Regional Channel is a good start, it is still not enough, and resolving this issue of preemption and next-day broadcasts is a priority that ABS-CBN and its regional viewers should agree upon.

The ABS-CBN Regional Channel is available on SkyCable channel 4 (for Metro Manila subscribers), SkyDirect channel 14 (for nationwide subscribers), iWanTV, SkyOnDemand and select cable providers.