MANILA -- Officials of ABS-CBN Sports and Sports Vision Management Group, Inc. formally inked a new partnership deal for the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Wednesday at the ELJ Communications Center at ABS-CBN headquarters in Quezon City.

The 14-year old league came up with a new name but will still have the same intense and exciting volleyball action, starting with the Reinforced Conference for both the men’s and women’s divisions starting April 30 at the FilOil Flying V Center in San Juan.

PVL organizer Sports Vision president Ricky Palou, chairman Moying Martelino, ABS-CBN S+A channel head Vince Rodriguez and ABS-CBN Integrated Sports business unit head for PVL Berg Capiz spearheaded the contract signing that ushers in a new era for the country’s longest-running commercial volleyball league.

“We’re happy with the partnership with ABS-CBN. Last year was a good year for us we thought it was a good year also for ABS-CBN. We’re very happy with how ABS-CBN is promoting our league to the public,” said Palou of the partnership that started last year when the country’s biggest TV network delivered the games live on S+A Channel 23, S+A HD Channel 166 and via livestream on sports.abs-cbn.com.

Sports Vision with the help of ABS-CBN decided to adopt a new and innovative league name, changing its Shakey’s V-League branding.

“We sat down with ABS-CBN and they wanted to come up with something new. They felt that it (league) was really growing so pagandahin na talaga pati pangalan and all,” said Palou. “We came up with several names and ito na ang napili namin. Ako personally I wanted Philippine Volleyball League kasi may Philippines eh, pero somebody used it na in the past. We decided with the Premier Volleyball League name.”

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Sports Vision also changed the Spiker’s Turf name into PVL men’s tournament.

There will still be three tournaments for the season – Reinforced, Open and Collegiate – both in men’s and women’s divisions.

For the Reinforced Conference, game playdates are every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

All elimination round games will be played in FilOil Flying V Center in San Juan while the semifinals and Finals games will be held at PhilSports Arena in Pasig City.

Two-time women’s champion Pocari Sweat will have its hands full as the Lady Warriors try to defend their crown against five other teams including the Alyssa Valdez-led Creamline Cool Smashers, BaliPure and Hapee Toothpaste.

The men’s division will also showcase a six-team field.

The final roster of the teams participating will be announced later.

Tournament format is a double-round elimination for women’s and single round for men’s while the semis and finals are all best-of-three affairs.

This story was originally published on the ABS-CBN Sports website.