football tv schedule

National Football League on television

The television rights to broadcast  (NFL) games are the most lucrative and expensive rights of any American sport. It was television that brought into prominence in the modern era after World War II. Since then, NFL broadcasts have become among the most-watched programs on American television, and the financial fortunes of entire networks have rested on owning NFL broadcasting rights. This has raised questions about the impartiality of the networks' coverage of games and whether they can criticize the NFL without fear of losing the rights and their income.

Overview of schedule

The NFL  usually begins in September, and ends in December or early January. Each team plays 16 games during a 17-week period. Traditionally, the majority of each week's games are played on Sunday afternoon. The Sunday afternoon games are televised regionally, where the particular game available on local television will depend on where the viewer is located, and begin at either approximately 1 p.m. or 4 p.m. . In addition, there are usually single nationally televised games each on Thursday night, Sunday night, and Monday night. These  games are broadcast across the country over one national over-the-air broadcast or cable network, where there are no regional restrictions, nor any other competing NFL contest.

All  games, the  and the  are nationally televised on either Saturday or Sunday in January/early February, and either in the afternoon or in primetime.

Scheduling during the  is more lenient in that most games usually start based on the local time. Thus, games on the West Coast are usually played after 7 p.m.  (10 p.m. Eastern Time). However, the handful of primetime, nationally televised preseason games are still played at approximately 8 p.m. Eastern Time.