The San Francisco 49ers will find out their 2018 regular season schedule on Thursday, and it will apparently offer slight changes to start times. The league has decided to bump prime time games up a little bit, according to Boston Globe reporter Ben Volin.
Here are the new expected start times (listed as Pacific):
Monday Night Football: 5:15 kickoff (up from 5:30)
Sunday Night Football: 5:20 kickoff (from 5:30)
Thursday Night Football: 5:20 kickoff (from 5:25)
I’m curious what the NFL will have to say about this, because it’s not exactly a huge change in start times. As one person pointed out, this might actually end up costing at least a little bit of west coast viewership more than not losing end of night east coast viewership.
I would not expect a drastic difference in the start of primetime games. That being said, as an east coast resident, the earlier they can bump these games the better. I don’t mind the start time so much as the end time. A big plus about watching NFL action on the west coast is the early finishes. I realize for people working a 9-5 or 9-6 job, it’s not ideal. But man, I hate the late finishes.