[THE SERVE NEWS] Superliga making impact, All-Star game in 2012?

Superliga making impact on cable tv

Brazilian Volleyball Superleague 2010/2011 has the best average ratings of the channel Sportv. It increased 92% in audience over the same period of last year and has an average of 0.42 point, the better of the channel. Sportv is currently the second most-watched cable-TV station.


This means that the Superleague has higher average audience than the football/soccer championships in Brazil on cable-tv. Actually, Volleyball is considered the second most popular team-sports in Brazil, only behind Football/Soccer, despite the presence of sports with rapid growth in recent years (Rugby, Curling and Hockey) and traditional sports like Basketball, Futsal (Indoor Soccer) and Handball.

Just to mention, an interesting fact about the recent achievements of the Superleague in terms of audience occurred in the 2009/2010 edition. The semi-final between Pinheiros and Cimed Florianópolis had more viewers than the semi-finals of the Sao Paulo Football State Championship between Sao Paulo FC and Santos FC last year.


Esporte Interativo purchase rights to broadcast games of the Superleague 2010/2011



The cable-tv Esporte Interativo began broadcasting on Saturday (12/02) the Superleague Volleyball 2010/2011. The first game was between Pinheiros / Sky x Cimed. This is a landmark for the Superleague in Brazil  since it shows the huge interest of the Brazilian public in Volleyball. 

However, the channel can not name the sponsors. This is because the Esporte Interativo sublicensed the rights to broadcast along the Globo network. Besides Superleague (male and female), will be broadcast by the channel the World League, Grand Prix and World Cup, plus World Tour beach volleyball.

Now matches of Superleague may be broadcasted by both SporTV and Esporte Interativo.
The next matches to be broadcast are:

[WSL] Usiminas Minas x Banana Boat/Praia Clube Uberlândia - (Monday) 14/02, 18h30. Sportv
[WSL] Pinheiros Mackenzie x BMG São Bernardo - (Tuesday) 15/02, 20h15. Sportv
[REPLAY MSL] Pinheiros Sky x Cimed Florianópolis - (Wednesday), 16/02, 17h30. Esporte Interativo
[WSL] Unilever Rio de Janeiro x Usiminas Minas - (Thursday) 17/02, 19h45. Esporte Interativo
[MSL] Volta Redonda RJ x SESI São Paulo - (Thursday) 17/02, 21h45. Sportv
[MSL] BMG Montes Claros x Vôlei Futuro Araçatuba - (Friday) 18/02, 21h. Sportv
[MSL] BMG São Bernardo x VIVO Minas - (Saturday) 19/02, 17h. Sportv

Read more HERE [in Portuguese]


Brazilian Superliga will have its version of the All-Star Game in 2012

Appeals of Gustavo, middle blocker of Pinheiros, to the Brazilian Volleyball Confederation (CBV) to create a "All-Star Game" took effect. The organization decided to repeat what happens with the national championship basketball (NBB) and create a match between the best in Superleague.
The decision comes as a reaction to the request of the Pinheiros middle-blocker on Twitter, who demonstrated to be disappointed not to have an "All-Star Game" of Volleyball.

"Where is the volleyball All-Star Game? Is it so hard to choose two coachs who would choose two teams? Disappointed!'' wrote the athlete, creating hastag # JogoDasEstrelasDoVolei.

The campaign initiated by the athlete was followed by other players in the Superleague which made the organization to announce the event for the 2012 season. Read the original [in Portuguese] 


The Return of Lucão

In the last round of the Superleague Men's 10/11, the central Lucão, of Vôlei Futuro (SP), returned to play a match after two months out of the courts due to an injury in his left hand. The athlete was one of the highlights of the victory over Volta Redonda (RJ) by 3 sets to 2, and left the court voted best player of the match. 


In the game against Volta Redonda, Lucão was in court during the five sets and scored 13 points.
Read More [in Portuguese]