Sacramento Station to Test Earlier Prime Time : Television: The NBC affiliate argues that a 7 p.m. start is needed for changing lifestyles and increased viewers for a news program at 10 p.m.

NBC, in a move that is expected to be copied by other TV stations on the West Coast, has agreed to a test in which its Sacramento affiliate, KCRA-TV, will start its prime-time schedule an hour earlier.

West Coast NBC affiliates have been petitioning the network for several years to advance the prime-time schedule to 7-10 p.m. from the traditional 8-11 p.m. period because of what is said to be “changing lifestyles” among viewers.

Many West Coast network-affiliated stations also want to move their 11 p.m. local news to 10 p.m. because more viewers are available at the earlier hour. Late-night news is a major profit center for local TV stations, which in recent years have come under increasing financial pressure to boost revenues.

“This is as important as when the Sacramento Bee switched from afternoon to morning publication,” said Jon S. Kelly, whose family owns KCRA-TV and KCPQ in Tacoma, Wash., and who has been a leading advocate for moving prime time ahead by one hour.

Kelly said recent studies have shown that West Coast viewers are going to bed and rising earlier than they have in the past, causing major shifts in viewing patterns. But NBC has not wanted to shift its West Coast prime-time schedule for fear it would hurt the network’s ratings.

“We are looking at this test for our entire network system,” said Pierson G. Mapes, president of NBC Television Network. “I think this is going to move a lot faster than I originally thought.” The test, which begins Sept. 16, will run at least 8 1/2 months.

NBC has 22 affiliates on the West Coast, accounting for about 15% of the network’s national coverage. Affiliates in the Central and Mountain Time Zones have traditionally run their prime-time programming an hour earlier than affiliates on the East and West coasts, with no adverse effect on the network.

Kelly said his main reason for advocating an earlier prime time is to move his local 11 p.m. news to the more profitable 10 p.m. time period. “The cornerstone to our company’s strength is our news operation,” he said.

KCRA-TV is an unusual station because it runs a total of 8 1/2 hours of locally produced news daily, including an overnight newscast. The NBC affiliate also dropped the network’s block of Saturday morning cartoons two years ago and replaced it with its own locally produced news program.

The only complication to shifting the prime-time schedule ahead one hour is the Federal Communications Commission’s so-called prime-time access rule that limits when a network can schedule prime-time programming. If KCRA-TV does not get a waiver from the rule, it would not be allowed to start “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” at 10:30 p.m. and would have to delay that program until 11 p.m.