NFL TV Rule Change Will Hugely Benefit Some Fans In 2019

The NFL owners are meeting this week in Key Biscayne, Fla., and while there haven't been any major rules changes approved (as of this writing), there was something accomplished rather quietly that will benefit fans in a big way from a television perspective: The league announced that it is eliminating its singleheader rule.

What does that mean? No matter your market, you will get three games each Sunday afternoon, either two in the 1 p.m. ET window and one in the late-afternoon window or vice versa. I live in between Tampa and Miami and thus am stuck with games involving those two teams when they play Sunday afternoons. Often, those were the only two games I would get to see. That will no longer be the case. If you lived in New York City, for example, in many weeks you would only get to see Giants and Jets games.

Now, all markets get a third game regardless of whether Fox or CBS has the doubleheader. If you already were using Sunday Ticket on DirectTV, this won't change anything but for those of us still beholden to network TV, it's massive. Previously, if a local team was playing on one network, the other network couldn't broadcast a game from a different market. Who wants to be a prisoner to their local teams only?

In addition, the NFL has moved the Divisional Round playoff game start times on the Sunday that weekend from 1:05 p.m. and 4:40 p.m. ET to 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. ET. Those times match conference championship weekend.

As of today, just 105 days until the NFL Kickoff Game between the Packers and Bears from Chicago on Thursday, Sept. 5! The new TV rule doesn't affect prime-time games on Thursday, Sunday and Monday.