NBC Sports Group, AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour Ink Media Partnership

NBC Sports Group and the AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) Pro Beach Volleyball Tour announced a media rights agreement for AVP tournaments to be televised on NBC and NBCSN, and live streamed on NBC Sports Live Extra.

The agreement returns the country’s premier professional beach volleyball tour, entering its 33rd year, to the network that first televised the AVP 25 years ago. It also marks the most comprehensive media partnership in Tour history and will include broadcast, cable, and digital components for the first time.

“We are pleased to welcome the AVP back home on NBC,” said Jon Miller, President, Programming, NBC Sports and NBCSN. “The AVP and beach volleyball have a long history with NBC Sports, and we will leverage the full collection of our broadcast, cable and online platforms of the NBC Sports Group to document the great stories, competition and personalities of the AVP’s athletes. With less than 500 days until the start of the Rio Olympics, we are excited to increase our coverage of this fan favorite Olympic sport.”

“We are very pleased to return the AVP Tour and its elite athletes to NBC Sports Group’s multiple platforms, and look forward to a long and mutually beneficial partnership that brings the unparalleled excitement of AVP tournaments into fans’ living rooms on Sunday afternoons throughout the summer,” said AVP Managing Partner Donald Sun. “As the 2016 Rio Games approach, this comprehensive new partnership gives us the perfect platform to further showcase beach volleyball to a national audience.”

The agreement calls for 17.5 hours of coverage in 2015, 10 on NBC and 7.5 on NBCSN, plus live streaming on NBC Sports Live Extra. Coverage will include the men’s and women’s finals of all seven regular-season tournaments. In addition, NBC and NBCSN will feature the finals and early-round coverage of an AVP-run tournament on the international FIVB (Federation International de Volleyball) Tour within the United States. Encore presentations of select telecasts will air on Universal Sports Network.

Coverage will run from May-September, beginning with the AVP’s season-opening event in New Orleans, La., over Memorial Day weekend. The AVP’s complete 2015 tour schedule can be found at avp.com. NBC Sports Group’s telecast schedule will be released at a later date.

The AVP is the exclusive domestic beach volleyball home of the nation’s top athletes, including  Olympic gold medalists Kerri Walsh-Jennings (2004, 2008, 2012), Phil Dalhausser (2008) and Todd Rogers (2008); Olympic  silver medalist April Ross (2012); two-time Olympians Jake Gibb (2008, 2012) and Sean Rosenthal (2008, 2012); and Olympian Nicole Branagh (2008). The tour also features many up-and-coming stars who are helping build the future of the sport, such as Casey Patterson, Theo Brunner, Tri Bourne, Summer Ross, Emily Day, Lane Carico and 2014 Newcomers of the Year Trevor Crabb and Amanda Dowdy.