Odd Kickoff Times

[anaxcrosswords]

Just noticed the change of KO for Man U vs Liverpool on 17th March - 8:05pm instead of 6pm, and it's a time I've noticed before. A few weeks ago we had 8 or 9 Premier League matches all kicking off at I think 8:05pm.
Why do they do that - why not just on the hour?

[Gromit]

The Police objected to the early kick off and requested EUFA to change it.

6pm is in the commuter rush hour, and it is also St. patricks day with events in Manchester.

I think the 05 are to let TV advertisers cram in some adverts before KO.

[Gromit]

Just looked up the tv regulations.

They are allowed to broadcast up to 12 minutes advertising in each hour. They cannot show adverts during the 45 minutes of the match. But after the first half, viewers and broadcasters do not want to show 12 minutes of adverts in one slot so they want to split it into 5 minutes before the match, 7 minutes at half time.

[ichkeria]

Yep: the extra 5 mins for the advertisers.
6pm is plainly a far more ridiculous ko time for this game :-)

Talking of bizarre times, how about ten to five for England v Ireland rugby ....

[Ken4155]

Aussie A League, Fri 4 Mar, Brisbane Roar v Western Sydney Wanderers, kick off 0907:-/