IPL 2018: Franchises reject BCCI, Star Sports’ proposal to change match-timings

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New Delhi, Feb 8: All eight franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL) have opposed the BCCI, broadcaster Start Sports and IPL governing council's suggestion to change the match-timing in IPL 2018.

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BCCI, IPL GC and Star Sports wanted to change the start timing of the matches in the eleventh season edition of the home-grown league.

The broadcaster, as well as the BCCI, proposed to change the start timing of the matches on the day of doubleheaders from the traditional 4 PM and 8 PM to 5:30 PM and 7 PM.

Broadcasters StarSports, who bagged the IPL broadcast media rights for a whopping amount of Rs 16,347.50 crore for a period of next five years, were keen on the new timings in order to get more ratings and viewership.

However, it is now learnt the eight IPL teams have shot down the idea.

A franchise official was quoted by The Indian Express as saying, "There will be no problem on days with just a single match but there will be a big one when there are doubleheaders. They won't get the complete three-hour quota and instead will have to share it with two matches. The overlap will result in one-and-a-half hours of each IPL match losing out on viewers."

IPL 2018 will kick off on April 4 in Mumbai.