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Sport in Seriousness
In a lengthy – and presumably still ongoing – legal battle over the cost of DirecTV’s “Sunday Ticket” broadcast package, a jury ruled against the NFL on Thursday. This means that the league will face billions of dollars in damages if it is not later reversed.
The NFL was ordered to pay $96 million to commercial Sunday Ticket subscribers and $4.7 billion to private subscribers.
The NFL is expected to appeal the ruling, which was handed down in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
“We are disappointed with today’s jury verdict in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the NFL said in a statement Thursday. “We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which includes all NFL games on free over-the-air television in participating teams’ markets and nationwide distribution of our most popular games, complemented by many additional options such as RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is by far the most fan-friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment. We will certainly appeal this decision as we believe the class action lawsuit in this case is without merit and without substance. We thank the jury for their time and effort, and for Judge Gutierrez’s guidance and oversight throughout the process.”
The trial began on June 6 in Los Angeles, with jury deliberations beginning on Wednesday.
The class action lawsuit alleged that the NFL violated antitrust laws by restricting distribution and limiting competition by offering Sunday Ticket only through satellite provider DirecTV. The lawsuit also alleged that this allowed DirecTV to charge its customers artificially inflated prices for Sunday Ticket.
An expert for the plaintiffs estimated that there were at least 2.4 million customers in that class, while putting the commercial class, which includes businesses such as sports bars, hotels and restaurants, at 48,000 subscribers. The classes include DirecTV subscribers who purchased “Sunday Ticket” from June 2011 to February 2023.
In a January 2024 filing, the plaintiffs said they were entitled to up to $7.01 billion in damages.
The NFL had denied any wrongdoing and defended its distribution model for “Sunday Ticket,” which it classifies as a premium product.
U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez had been overseeing the case for several years. He had previously ruled in favor of the NFL and dismissed the lawsuit, but it was reinstated by an appeals court in 2019.
According to the Associated Press, Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys and chairman of the NFL media committee, testified last week. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell also testified on June 17, and former executives from CBS Sports (Sean McManus) and Fox Sports (Larry Jones) also testified.
According to the Associated Press, this case began in 2015 when a San Francisco sports bar, The Mucky Duck, filed a lawsuit. The case was dismissed two years later but revived in 2019 when the 9th The appeals court reinstated it. In 2023, Gutierrez ruled that the case could proceed as a class action lawsuit.
DirecTV had carried “Sunday Ticket” from its launch in 1994 through the 2022 season. However, in December 2022, Google, the parent company of YouTube TV, secured an exclusive seven-year deal worth an average of $2 billion per year, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The 2023 season was the first season in which YouTube TV offered Sunday Ticket. Neither Google nor YouTube TV were named as defendants in the class action lawsuit.
Contributors: Reuters
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