Serie A wants to bring forward the time of its evening matches
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The standard time has always been 8:45 PM. The only time a different schedule was attempted was in 2018/19. Broadcasters would still have to be convinced, considering that in recent seasons, when a big match was brought forward, the loss in TV ratings was significant.
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Moving the postponement (or the advancement of the match). Among the issues on the table in Serie A in recent weeks is the possible request to move the start time of night matches forward, from the traditional 8:45 pm to 8:00 pm, with the idea of conducting a test during the current season. "I'd like to inspire young people who are distracted by social media. Evening matches can't start at 8:45 pm; they need to start earlier to attract future customers. If it were up to me, I'd set kick-off at 8:00 pm," Lega Calcio Serie A president Ezio Simonelli said in recent months. AC Milan manager Massimiliano Allegri is also in favor of this option: "Evening matches could be moved forward to 8:00 pm: the players could go to bed earlier and rest. With the current schedule, matches finish very late."
Since the first historic Serie A postponement, Lazio-Foggia on August 29, 1993, which was the first match ever to be broadcast on Tele+ after the sale of the TV rights, the standard time has always been 8:45 PM. With a few exceptions (such as the 2019/20 season, when play resumed in the summer after the Covid lockdown), the only year in which a different time slot was attempted was in the 2018/19 season, when the decision was made to trial the 8:30 PM time slot for a single season. However, this experiment only lasted a year, as the following Serie A season saw the return to 8:45 PM. Broadcasters would still have to be convinced, considering that, over the past few seasons, when big matches were moved up in time, the loss in TV ratings was significant.
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