Premier Volleyball League

The Premier Volleyball League (PVL) is the top-level women's professional volleyball league in the Philippines organized by Sports Vision Management Group, Inc. The league began in 2004 as the Shakey's V-League (SVL), a women's collegiate league. In 2017, the league was rebranded into the Premier Volleyball League. From 2017 to 2020, the league was open to participation of corporate clubs and other non-collegiate teams. The league status turned professional in 2021.

The Spikers' Turf is the men's counterpart of the league.

2004–2016: Shakey's V-League
The Premier Volleyball League was established in 2004 as the Shakey's V-League by Sports Vision Management Group, Inc. led by Jun Bernardino, Ricky Palou, Moying Martelino and Rhea Navarro. The Shakey's V-League was initially an inter-collegiate women's league with participants from the UAAP, NCAA, and CESAFI among others. The SVL's establishment was in cooperation with Shakey's Pizza (Philippines) serving as its title sponsor until 2016. Prior to the league's establishment, the sport was in a state of stagnation since the 1990s with the highest level of competitive volleyball being the women's collegiate tournament of the Metro Manila-based UAAP.

Among the unique rules implemented by Shakey's V-League upon its founding was allowing the collegiate (and later, corporate managed) teams to have maximum of two reinforcements - termed as "guest players" - on their roster. These guest players have ranged from alumni of the participating schools, high school recruits who use the ongoing tournament as preparation for the upcoming collegiate season and foreigners (with the most notable being the Thai Jaroensri Bualee). In a few cases, participating schools had guest players who were alumni of another collegiate program to increase the competitive field.

Prior to 2011, guest players for colleges were eligible in the two (or in a few instances, three) tournaments held during the year - they were henceforth limited to the Open or Reinforced conferences until such format was succeeded by the one foreign reinforcement per team in 2016 (as "imports").

The UST Golden Tigresses won the inaugural V-League championship in 2004 defeating the DLSU Lady Archers. But DLSU won the next three conferences, defeating UST in both tourneys of Season 2 and the SSC-R Lady Stags in Season 3, sweeping both in the Finals of the three conferences.

The UST Tigresses returned to the league in 2007, after missing Season 3, winning both conferences (tournaments) of Season 4 by defeating the SSC-R Lady Stags in both finals series.

Year 2008 saw the crowning of two other schools aside from UST and DLSU. Adamson University won the championship in Season 5's First Conference defeating the Ateneo Lady Eagles while San Sebastian College-Recoletos Lady Stags won the succeeding Second Conference by sweeping the two comebacking champion teams: DLSU Lady Archers in the semifinals and UST Tigresses in the finals.

However, the Tigresses made history via a "three-peat" winning their fourth, fifth and sixth championships by sweeping both tourneys of Season 6 by defeating SSC-R and Adamson, respectively in both championship series, and again winning the first conference of Season 7 by beating SSC-R for the fourth time in the finals. It was the battle for silver of the prior two conferences when Adamson University faced the Lady Stags of SSC-R in the finals of the 2nd Conference Season 7. Adamson won its second V-League crown after defeating San Sebastian 2–1 in their Finals series.

The Ateneo Lady Eagles won their first Shakey's V-League crown by thumping defending champions Adamson in the Finals of Season 8's First Conference. The 2nd Conference for the year was renamed as the Shakey's V-League Open Conference as it was opened to semi-commercial teams with the addition of the Philippine Army, Philippine Navy, Philippine Air Force and Maynilad. The Philippine Army won their first Shakey's V-League championship. Season 8-Open Conference, Shakey's V-League will also aired on GMA Life TV, GMA News TV and GMA Pinoy TV for the international viewers.



The Shakey's V-League formally welcomed the participation of corporate and non-collegiate teams starting 2011.

Season 9 was locally aired by the AKTV bloc on IBC13 and the Hyper channel.

Beginning its 10th Season, Shakey's V-League's new broadcasting partner was GMA News TV. Matches were aired at 1PM to 3PM during weekdays, and 12:45PM to 2:30PM during Saturdays. On May 26, 2013, Shakey's V-League held its first live TV coverage via GMA News TV. It is also announced that the Game 3 matches, both for Championship and the Battle for 3rd will be aired live on GMA News TV on June 2, 2013. In Season 10 Open Conference, Cagayan Valley made history as the Lady Rising Suns scored a tournament sweep, winning all matches from the elimination to the Finals en route to the team's first V-League title with a 2–0 series win over Smart-Maynilad Net Spikers.

On October 2, 2014, it was reported that a men's division will be included in its 21st conference with four teams.

On May 24, 2016, it was officially announced that Shakey's V-League will be aired on S+A Channel 23 following an agreement between Sports Vision, Shakey's and ABS-CBN Sports.

2017–2020: Premier Volleyball League, professional status and hiatus
The Shakey's V-League changed its name to the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) starting the 2017 season. The Spikers' Turf, which was spun-off from the league in 2015, was merged back to the PVL and was rebranded as the PVL's men's division. The renaming was part of a bid to secure more sponsorship for the league. There was a plan to rename the league to the Philippine Volleyball League instead but this was abandoned due to another entity already owning the name. The order of its conference was also changed with the league beginning with the import-laden Reinforced Conference and the Open Conference being held close to the start of the UAAP and NCAA tournaments which is usually held near the year's end. Prior to this, the Open Conference was traditionally held earlier.

The PVL men's division ended with the 2018 PVL Collegiate Conference as its final tournament. The men's division reverted to the Spikers' Turf. The first tournament since the revert was the Open Conference in October 2018.

The 2020 season was indefinitely postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and there were plans to start the season with the Open Conference instead of the Reinforced Conference in September 2020 due to logistics issue of flying in imports for the latter.

In October 2020, the Philippines' Games and Amusements Board (GAB) issued a directive that players compensated for non-national team play would be considered as professionals, as well as all sporting events organized for profit. This has raised concerns regarding the status of leagues such as the PVL and its rival league, the Philippine Super Liga (PSL). The PVL in particular was concerned over the financial aspects of operating as a professional league.

In November 2020, the PVL announced that the league would turn professional starting with the 2021 season, believing it has enough women players to make the move. The league was already considering move for some time due to the collegiate league UAAP deciding to bar its rookies from playing in commercial leagues starting its UAAP Season 81 (2018-19) in anticipation that all college players would not be allowed to play in the PVL eventually. Prior to the league's professionalization, the PVL was considered as semi-professional and thus, its affairs were not supervised or regulated by the GAB. Six PVL teams—BaliPure, Banko Perlas, Choco Mucho, Creamline, Motolite, and Petro Gazz—agreed to the move of the PVL turning professional.

A new separate league called the V-League, was formed to accommodate collegiate and amateur teams which could no longer participate in the PVL due to the league's professionalization. Prior to its professionalization, the PVL hosted a collegiate conference.

2021–present: Return of the league and further expansion
Prior to the start of the 2021 season, five PSL teams—Chery Tiggo, Cignal HD, F2 Logistics, PLDT, and Sta. Lucia—joined the PVL, which rendered the PVL a "unified" professional league, leaving the PSL with only three inactive member teams.

The PVL returned in 2021 with the 2021 Open Conference, which was staged in a bubble set-up. The recurrence of an entire season began the following year. In October 2022, PVL announced the use of video challenge system for the first time in the return of the Reinforced Conference after three years.

The 2023 season saw the rebranding of the Open Conference as the All-Filipino Conference to better reflect that only Filipino players could compete in said conference. After the All-Filipino Conference, the league saw the addition of two new teams in Farm Fresh Foxies and Quezon City Gerflor Defenders, and the reappearance of Foton Tornadoes in the Filipino volleyball scene. The three teams pledged to participate in the league for at least the next three years. With the inclusion of three new teams comes with the skipping of Philippine Army Lady Troopers from joining the league due to military training to most of its players. Foton withdrew shortly after their participation in Invitational Conference because some of its players didn't get a contract renewal and they returned to the franchise's main team, the Chery Tiggo. F2 Logistics and Gerflor Defenders were disbanded after the 2023 season.

Starting the 2024 season, two new established teams will join the All-Filipino Conference namely Strong Group Athletics, who took over the Gerflor Defenders franchise, and Capital1 Solar Spikers. This 2024 season will also see the commencement of the league's inaugural rookie draft which aims to enhance the league’s competitive balance of all the teams.

Season format
Unlike other foreign professional volleyball leagues that have one whole club season that spans from October to May, the Premier Volleyball League seasons are divided into 2-3 conferences, similar to other local leagues such as the Philippine Basketball Association, and the former rival league, Philippine Super Liga.

From 2017 to 2019, PVL paraded three conferences—Reinforced, Open (now called All-Filipino since 2023), and Collegiate. The Reinforced Conference is the conference where it features teams with foreign guest players as reinforcements. The Open Conference is the conference for Filipino players and is open for amateur and collegiate teams to join. Lastly, the Collegiate Conference is a tournament strictly for college and university teams to participate in preparation for their main collegiate league tournaments.

Ever since the league earned its professional status, the Collegiate Conference has now moved to the revived V-League tournament. The PVL still presents three conferences, with the Invitational replacing the defunct Collegiate. The Invitational Conference, debuting in the 2022 season, showcases local teams being able to compete against foreign guest teams. Moreover, the Open/All-Filipino conference now only caters to Filipino professional volleyball players.

During the 2023 season, the originally planned Reinforced Conference was canceled due to the sanction imposed by the Philippine National Volleyball Federation for violating Article 6.1.1.b of the FIVB Regulations 2022, stating that professional leagues should prioritize the national team period. With this sanction, the club teams are not able to sign in foreign players for the tournament as the federation prevents issuing international transfer certificates. A second All-Filipino conference was instead launched as its replacement.

Player eligibility
During its semi-professional era from 2017 to 2019, the league is open to players, whether they are simultaneously playing in their respective school leagues or not. One notable team is the 2018 Reinforced lineup of the Balipure-NU Water Defenders, where the core of the team is composed of high school athletes from NU Nazareth School. Local-based (LGU) teams were also welcomed to participate in the league.

Since 2021, players from UAAP schools will need to forego their playing years to compete in the league as the UAAP now prohibits their student-athletes from participating in commercial sporting leagues. Athletes from the NCAA were still able to play by obtaining a special guest license (SGL) granted by the Games and Amusements Board (GAB) and honored by their collegiate league. This license allows them to play in a professional league without preceding their remaining collegiate playing years.

The 2024 season will see the inaugural commencement of the league's rookie draft, where players coming from colleges and universities who have not previously competed in the league can apply and be hired by club teams. With the launch of the rookie draft, teams are now barred from directly hiring players from the collegiate ranks, such as the NCAA, and the UAAP. Furthermore, it limits on which players can apply and enter the league. They should be at least 21 years old by December 31 of the year of the annual draft, with no necessity for collegiate playing experience or academic qualifications, and Filipino-foreign players must secure a Philippine passport or a birth certificate issued in the Philippines before the deadline for submission of draft eligibility requirements.

Awardees
Below is the table for the most awarded players in the league's history (2017–present):

Notable records
Below is the table for the notable records of the league during its history (2017–present):

Playing venues
The Premier Volleyball League (as well as its predecessor) does not use a "home-and-away" format since most teams are managed by corporations. Games are presently held at the Filoil EcoOil Centre in San Juan, PhilSports Arena in Pasig, Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, and SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay. Aside from the regular venues, the PVL are holding games outside of Metro Manila, known as the "PVL on Tour" since its first season.

During the 2021 season, the league held its first season as a professional league at PCV Socio-Civic & Cultural Center in Bacarra, Ilocos Norte. This was held in an isolation zone (bubble) setup due to the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. And in the 2022 Open, the preliminary round games were held in Paco Arena in Manila in the same bubble format as the last conference. Starting from the playoffs of the said conference, the league officially started reaccepting live audiences to watch the games.

Other venues

 * PVL on Tour
 * PVL Bubble venues

Media coverage
Continuing from PVL's predecessor, Shakey's V-League, the league's broadcast coverage partner was ABS-CBN Sports and Action. This partnership continued until 2020. In the aftermath of the ABS-CBN legislative franchise renewal controversy, the PVL moved to sign a partnership agreement with Cignal TV, as their primary broadcasting partner from the 2021 season onwards with former ABS-CBN Sports personnel continuing at the helm that can be watched through One Sports and One Sports+. Starting the 2024 season, PVL games can also be watched through the new free-to-air channel – RPTV.

With the rise of online streaming services, the live coverage of the games can be viewed via Cignal Play, Smart LiveStream, Pilipinas Live app, and the league's official website.


 * ABS-CBN Sports (2017–2020)
 * S+A (2017–2020)
 * S+A HD (2017–2020)
 * Liga (2018–2020)
 * Liga HD (2018–2020)
 * iWant Sports (2019–2020)
 * Cignal TV (2021–present)
 * One Sports (2021–present)
 * One Sports+ (2021–present)
 * Cignal Play (2021–present)
 * Smart LiveStream (2021–present)
 * Pilipinas Live (2023–present)
 * RPTV (2024–present)