Patriots-Bills game shifted to Fox

The week six Patriots-Bills game taking place in Buffalo will now be televised on Fox. The kick-off time will remain the same (1pm ET) but the network change is part of the NFL's wider flexible scheduling initiative which prioritises high-stakes games for prime-time slots. A competitive division matchup such as this is exactly the kind of game that the NFL will look to push to a wider viewership.

NFL News Release:

The NFL uses “flexible scheduling” to ensure quality matchups in all NFL Sunday time slots and to give teams a chance to play their way onto prime-time and into the late-afternoon 4:25 p.m. ET time slot on CBS or FOX.

For the first time, flexible scheduling may be applied in Weeks 5-10. During that period, flexible scheduling can be used in no more than two weeks by shifting a Sunday afternoon game into primetime and moving the Sunday night game to an afternoon start time.

Also, for the first time, a select number of games are being “cross-flexed,” moving between CBS and FOX to bring potentially under-distributed games to wider audiences.

Let's hope that the Patriots put in a better prime-time shift than Monday night at Arrowhead.

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