Kickoff time for Bengals’ Oct. 25 home game against the Chicago Bears has been moved to 4:15 p.m., the NFL announced. The switch from an originally scheduled 1 p.m. kickoff was made to accommodate Fox Sports broadcast patterns. 

“This is certainly an indication that the league office and Fox Sports believe this will be an attractive game,” said Katie Blackburn, Bengals executive vice-president, “and playing in the later time slot should significantly increase the national audience able to see a showcase event from Cincinnati and Paul Brown Stadium.”

The game is a sellout and will be broadcast in the Cincinnati home market on WXIX-TV (Channel 19) in Cincinnati, WRGT-TV (Channel 45) in Dayton and on WDKY-TV (Channel 56) in Lexington, Ky.

The only Bengals home game prior to Nov. 8 for which tickets are still available is the 1 p.m. game on Oct. 18 vs. Houston. A sellout for Houston would assure that for Chicago, the Bengals would have their 48th consecutive home sellout (regular season and post-season).

The sellout streak now stands at 46 after sellouts for the first two home games of this season. No Bengals  game has been blacked out in the local television market since Nov. 9, 2003.