"A" games are usually the primary game for each network (1:00 ET for Eastern and Central time zone or 4:05 ET for Mountain and Pacific time zone games in a single-game week), and if the network has a doubleheader, is typically the 4:25 ET game. When a media market's regionally televised game ends before the others, the network (CBS or Fox) may switch to "bonus coverage" of the ending of another game. In the rare event that the first quarter of a late game ends before all early games on that network have ended, the network may either take a break consisting entirely of network promos / If a team calls a timeout and the network decides to use it for a commercial break, a representative from the broadcast crew stationed on the sidelines wearing orange sleeves makes a crossing motion with his hands to alert the officials. For this reason, if two teams share a primary media market, their games are never scheduled on the same network on the same day (unless they play each other). Under these rules, when the home team is being shown on the network with the NFL single game, the doubleheader station can only air one of its games.The rule was designed to encourage ticket-holders to show up at the stadium instead of watching another game on television. For this to occur, one team must be ahead by at least 18 points in the second half.If the local team is scheduled for the late game of a doubleheader, it has importance over any early game.When a local team plays the early game of a doubleheader, that game holds importance over any late game. Both the Rams and Raiders usually had trouble selling out their respective stadiums during their time in Los Angeles, thus their home games were frequently blacked out anyway. The NFL regular season begins in the second weekend in September (the weekend after Labor Day in the United States) and ends in late December or early January. From 1970 to 2005, both of the Sunday afternoon broadcast networks (CBS and NBC from 1970–1993, Fox and NBC from 1994–1997, and Fox and CBS from 1998–2005) were given at least two Saturday afternoon national broadcasts in December, with In 2006, the schedule was cut to three Saturday games, which aired in primetime and were televised on the In 2014, the NFL returned to Saturdays with a Week 16 doubleheader, with the Saturday afternoon game airing on the NFL Network and a Saturday night game airing on Several notable games have taken place on Saturdays, including the (Under Federal law, in order to maintain its antitrust exemption, the NFL is not permitted the "telecasting of all or a substantial part of any professional football game on any Friday after six o’clock postmeridian or on any Saturday during the period beginning on the second Friday in September and ending on the second Saturday in December in any year from any telecasting station located within seventy-five miles of the game site of any intercollegiate or interscholastic football contest[.]" NBC had sporadically carried NFL games as early as 1939, including the championship and Pro Bowl through the 1950s and early 1960s. Regular season Sunday afternoon games aired on CBS and Fox are distributed to affiliates by means of regional coverage. Therefore, markets with two teams (such as New York) rarely got more than two games, since odds were that one of the two teams would be at home on any given Sunday.National broadcasts of marquee matches occur on Thursday, Sunday and Monday nights. NBC has broadcast rights to the opening night Other regular season nationally televised games include Since 2012, a Thursday night game went into effect during every week of the season with the exception of Week 17. During odd years, Dallas hosts an AFC team and Detroit plays an NFC opponent (usually another NFC North team, and often the Green Bay Packers, who draw high TV ratings). Listen to NFL on NBC - 1995-1997 theme song and find more theme music and songs from 32,772 different television shows at TelevisionTunes.com This segment would be featured at the beginning of the pregame show for much of the latter part of the 1980s. But with television contract re-negotiations in early 1998 ushering in the era of multibillion-dollar broadcasting agreements, an era of pro football broadcasting would soon come to an unceremonious conclusion. NBC began broadcasting the On February 1, 2016, the league announced that NBC had won a partial share of NBC often mixed their commentator groupings for 2016. As of February 2019NBC's sister Spanish-language cable network mun2 (which rebranded as CBS, which lacks any Spanish language outlets, still uses solely SAP for its Spanish simulcasts.