MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has announced new time slots for three of its originally-produced programs SportsCenter Asia, Tiger First Edition and Nokia Football Crazy. Effective from today, the altered schedule will be applicable across the Asian region, including India.

The changes are initiated based on a study undertaken on the viewing pattern and programming preferences prevailing across Asia, states ESS in an official release.

As per the new schedule, SportsCenter Asia will air every weeknight live at Hong Kong time 7:30 pm, 10 pm and 12:30 am. SportsCenter at 7:30 pm will be followed by a football game every weeknight. Nokia Football Crazy will telecast every Thursday, live at 8 pm. The programme Tiger First Edition is slotted for Fridays, live at 9 pm.

Announcing the time change, ESS VP marketing and corporate communications Stephenie Vasko said, "ESS Sports has undertaken a detailed viewing pattern and programming preferences exercise across Asia. This exercise has helped us map changes in viewership trends as well as identify time bands preferred for viewing sports. These time changes herald the start of a new programming and scheduling strategy for our channels across Asia which will develop stronger appointment viewing opportunities as well as attract even more viewers in the longer term."