The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) might be looking to change match timings of the Indian Premier League from the 2023 season onward. The board is planning to switch back to the old timings of 4 PM and 8 PM, ditching the current 3:30 PM and 7:30 PM start. Notably, IPL matches originally used to start at 4 PM and 8 PM, depending on whether it is an afternoon game or a night game, when Sony Sports Network were the broadcasters. This schedule was followed for ten seasons, but was later changed following the change in broadcasters.
The current broadcasters, Star Sports requested BCCI to prepone the matches by 30 minutes – that is, to start afternoon games from 3:30 PM and evening games from 7:30 PM. This was done to optimize monetization, as Star Sports claimed that preponing the games will help get extra 30 minutes of prime time slot. “BCCI’s preferred start times for double-headers being 4 pm and 8 pm Indian Standard Time,” the board said in an official communication.However, with Star’s deal set to expire at the end of the ongoing season, BCCI are willing to switch back to the original timings. Meanwhile, Friday (May 20) happens to be the last date for interested parties to buy ITT documents for bidding for the media rights.Star India, Viacom 18, Sony, Amazon, Zee, Dream 11, Supersports in South Africa and Sky in the UK have bought the ITT document. The bidding will take place on June 12 and the BCCI has fixed a combined base price of INR 32,890 crore for the four bouquets it has put up for sale.
