It's Beach Volleyball Time For Versus
Sports Net Airs First Of 11 Tourneys Next Week
Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 5/8/2009 3:16:39 PM EDT
After a four-year hiatus, Versus is about to get back to the beach.Comcast's national sports network will begin airing the first of 11 AVP beach volleyball tournaments on Monday and Tuesday.
The deal, secured through a time buy, calls for Versus to air the tournaments on tape delay, with match coverage generally airing around eight to 10 days after their completion.
For instance, Versus will present coverage from the AVP's event in San Diego, which took place from May 1 through May 3 on May 11 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and May 12 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Included in Versus' coverage will be the Manhattan Beach tournament, generally considered the Wimbledon of the sand sport. Versus will air the tournament, which will be played from July 16 through July 19 in that California seaside community, on July 27 from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. and July 28 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Click here for Versus' complete AVP schedule.
Versus' predecessor OLN aired AVP events in 2005.
"We are always looking to add strong, recognizable sports properties to our already solid lineup of action-packed events," said Versus executive vice president of programming, production and business operations Mark Fein in a statement.
NBC, which was the first network to champion the sport nationally, is carrying three live events, while Fox Sports Net carried one.
The AVP, which figured to benefit from gold-medal wins by U.S. teams in the Beijing Olympics last August, has encountered problems with the resignation of commissioner Leonard Armato. FSN, which was scheduled to air a dozen events, also held a stake in the AVP.
The high-profile women's team of Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh are not competing this year as the former is recovering from an Achilles injury sustained on ABC's Dancing With the Stars and the latter is pregnant. The top American men's team of Todd Rodgers and Phil Dalhausser remains intact.
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