There are 4.8 billion reasons why other leagues are watching the fallout from the Sunday Ticket case

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (R) comes to federal court with a class-action lawsuit filed by “Sunday Ticket” subscribers alleging that the NFL has violated antitrust laws.
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LOS ANGELES — Professional sports leagues have 4.8 billion plaintiffs to review how they distribute out-of-market broadcasts following Thursday’s ruling against the NFL in the “Sunday Ticket” case by a U.S. district court.

“This will require other leagues to take a hard look at their model and make sure that the means by which they provide consumers with choice really does provide real choice,” said Christine Bartholomew, associate dean and professor at the University at Buffalo School of Law. “What happened here, at least according to the jury, was that the NFL really limited consumer choice. Not only did they encourage consumers to use satellite TV, but it meant they had to buy the whole package.”

The jury, composed of five men and three women, found that the NFL violated antitrust laws by distributing Sunday afternoon games that are not broadcast locally on Fox or CBS to a premium subscription service that has only one distributor, keeping the cost of the package high and limiting the number of subscribers so that it would not affect local ratings.

The class action lawsuit targeted 2.4 million individual and 48,000 business subscribers in the United States who paid for a bundle of out-of-market games from the 2011-2022 seasons on DirecTV.

The jury awarded $4.7 billion in damages to the residential class and $96 million in damages to the commercial class. Because damages can be tripled under federal antitrust laws, the NFL could be ordered to pay $14.39 billion.

Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League also offer off-market packages, but they are structured differently than the NFL. All three are offered by cable and satellite providers, as well as streaming.

With digital packages, the MLB and NBA offer a variety of options, including a team package. The NBA also offers a pay-per-game option.

The NHL digital package in the U.S. is included with your ESPN+ streaming subscription.

The MLB, NHL and NBA packages are available at a lower subscription price than the “NFL Sunday Ticket,” despite having longer seasons.

Ari Lightman, a professor of digital media and marketing at Carnegie Mellon University, said the NFL will have to become more responsive to consumer demands in the future.

“They need to understand different audiences in terms of where they exist, how fans interact and what they’re looking for,” he said. “They want things that are relevant and personalized to their needs, because everything they’re overpaying for is unwanted, and that’s the whole idea of ​​bundling. … The price that was offered as part of the ‘Sunday Ticket’ package was just a little bit too high.”

Some were also surprised that the NFL allowed the case to go to trial without a settlement. The league did not do well in antitrust cases and most of them settled before they went to court.

In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in American Needle v. NFL that the league is a collection of 32 teams, not a single entity. The cap maker sued the NFL in 2004 for violating antitrust laws over its exclusive deal with Reebok, which began in 2001.

Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in his opinion that “Although NFL teams share common interests, such as promoting the NFL brand, they are still separate profit-maximizing entities.”

The NFL and American Needle finally settled the case in 2015.

Judge Philip S. Gutierrez is scheduled to hear post-trial motions on July 31, including the NFL’s request to rule in the league’s favor because the judge found the plaintiffs had failed to prove their case.

The NFL announced it would appeal the ruling. That appeal will go to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and then likely to the Supreme Court.

Payment of compensation, any changes to the Sunday Ticket package and/or the way the NFL conducts its Sunday afternoon games will be withheld until all appeals are resolved.

During closing arguments, plaintiffs showed a 2017 memo in which the NFL was considering putting games not shown on Fox or CBS on cable channels.

There’s also the possibility that the NFL could settle the case at some point in the future. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2015 by San Francisco sports bar Mucky Duck, but was dismissed two years later by a U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. The 9th Circuit Court reopened the case in 2019.

“People were critical of the way the plaintiffs’ case was presented due to the complicated nature of the evidence. Clearly it was the right strategy because they won,” said Irwin Kishner, co-chair of the Sports Law Group with the New York law firm Herrick. “And the NFL trying to raise wealthy owners may not have the best strategy. Hindsight is always 20/20.”