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NEW YORK -- NBC flexed some muscle with its "flexible scheduling" feature.

The NFL announced on Tuesday that the November 12 game between the Chicago Bears and New York Giants has been switched to prime time from Fox to NBC. Originally scheduled for 1 p.m. EST, the marquee matchup of first-place teams has been moved to 8:15 p.m.

Fox responded to the loss of that game by moving an interconference matchup on November 12 between the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers and first-place New Orleans Saints from 1 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.

This season, the NFL is implementing "flexible scheduling" for the first time on Sundays in Weeks 10-15 and in Week 17. November 12 marks the first week of the feature, which will ensure quality matchups in all of the Sunday night time slots on NBC.

For each of the "flexible scheduling" weeks with the exception of Week 17, the NFL will announce the start times of games on Sundays no later than 12 days prior to that weekend. In Week 17, in order to ensure a Sunday night game and doubleheader games with playoff implications, the decision to move the start time may be made on six days notice.

NBC signed a six-year deal from 2006 through 2011 to take the Sunday night NFL package, previously on ESPN. The "flexibile scheduling" feature was a big part of the deal and NBC also received the Super Bowl in 2009 and 2012 and Pro Bowls in the same year as part of the agreement.

This story is from ESPN.com's automated news wire. Wire index