Bengaluru, December 19: With an eye on catching the Asian market, for the first time in Spanish La Liga history, the El Clasico featuring archrivals Real Madrid and Barcelona has been scheduled for an early kick off.

The match at Real's home ground of Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday (December 23) begins at 1pm local time (12noon GMT, 5.30pm IST).

"We're keen to provide our fans in Asia the opportunity to watch Real Madrid and Barcelona face off at a time that is convenient to them," said La Liga's Chief Communications Officer Joris Evers while explaining the rationale of the lunch-time kick-off

"The kick-off time is 5.30pm in New Delhi, 7pm in Jakarta and 8pm in Shanghai," continued Evers.

"These are all locations where we know there're many La Liga fans and where we'll be hosting events to celebrate El Clasico.

"Additional events are being held in various locations around Asia. Through this and other initiatives we want to make existing fans even bigger La Liga supporters and, of course, we want to attract new supporters as well," he added.

With a potential television audience of 650 million people, according to La Liga, El Clasico is the most watched club match around the world thanks to its unique mixture of star protagonists like Cristaino Ronalso and Lionel Messi and a fierce rivalry fostered over decades both on the field and off it by the distinct cultural differences between Catalonia and Madrid.

#VIdeo #LaLiga title race not over even if @FCBarcelona win #ElClasico vs @realmadriden , says @andresiniesta8https://t.co/rA1Ur0Hd7C pic.twitter.com/SGqJ7HVQCs

— HT Sports (@HTSportsNews) December 19, 2017

However, it is not just a boom in lucrative television rights that La Liga and its two biggest clubs are seeking with an early start this weekend, but a showcase for all of their lucrative sponsorship contracts.

Last year Barcelona signed a club record shirt sponsorship deal worth a minimum of 220 million euros ($258 million) over four years with Japanese online retailer Rakuten.

According to a study carried out by consumer analytics specialists Nielsen Sports, last season's corresponding first La Liga Clasico of the season generated more than $42.5 million in media value for sponsors.

Such events are a sign of La Liga's awareness of how the Spanish top flight lags behind England's cash rich Premier League in the battle for Asian based fans.

Moreover, whilst Asia is the Premier League's biggest international market, it trails behind the Americas and the rest of Europe in La Liga's rights deals.

"We've changed kick-off schedules so that they can be seen at reasonable times here in Asia and we'll continue to take steps to ensure that this part of the world can enjoy La Liga as much as possible," La Liga President Javier Tebas had said at the opening of the league's new Singapore office earlier this year, just one of a series of new La Liga bases across the world.

(With Agency inputs).