Posted: 3 p.m.
The NFL today extended by 24 hours the deadline by which a sellout must be reached to permit local television coverage of Sunday's 1 p.m. Bengals game vs. Houston at Paul Brown Stadium.
Games normally must be sold out 72 hours prior to kickoff for lifting of the local TV blackout, but the deadline for this week has been shortened to 48 hours, giving the club until 1 p.m. tomorrow (Friday).
"We thank our fans for stepping up with a good run of support the last few days, bringing us close enough to get this extension," said Katie Blackburn, Bengals executive vice-president. "We are continuing to work to lift the blackout. It's unclear if we will make it -- we have more than 3000 tickets to go -- but we have great fans and hope we can reach the level that allows our sellout streak to continue."
The Bengals have sold out their last 46 consecutive regular-season and postseason games, breaking a franchise-record streak of 43 that was set at Riverfront Stadium between 1988 and 1992.
If the game is sold out by 1 p.m. Friday, it will be televised live in the Bengals home market on CBS affiliates WKRC-TV (Channel 12) in Cincinnati, WHIO-TV (Channel 7) in Dayton and WKYT-TV (Channel 27) in Lexington, Ky.
