Remember those frustrating moments when the back-to-back NFL games on FOX or CBS force you to miss the end of one game (or the beginning of another) because of the overlap in times? Well, the NFL is wanting you to enjoy as much of their product as possible, so those afternoon kick-off times are being pushed back an extra 10 minutes. That, believe it or not, will guarantee you see nearly every game on the schedule that day.
The NFL issued a statement about the TV schedule changes recently:
The 4:25 PM ET kickoff time will reduce instances in which fans miss the end of a 1:00 PM ET game telecast because they must receive the opening kickoff of their home team’s late-afternoon game. In addition, fans not in the cities of the late doubleheader opponents will be less likely to miss the beginning of the late doubleheader game.
In researching the kickoff time shift, the NFL analyzed games from the 2009-11 seasons and found that 44 games required part of the audience to be switched to a mandatory doubleheader game kickoff. With a 4:25 PM ET kickoff time, that number that would have been reduced by 66 percent to only 15 games.