Sports world eyes NFL ruling | Arkansas Democratic Newspaper

LOS ANGELES – Following Thursday’s ruling against the NFL in the “Sunday Ticket” case by a U.S. District Court, professional sports leagues have $4.8 billion in reasons to review how they distribute out-of-market broadcasts.

“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 it get 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 covered 2.4 million individual subscribers and 48,000 businesses 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 out-of-market packages, but they are structured differently than the NFL. All three are offered by cable and satellite TV, as well as streaming providers.

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 US is included with a subscription to the ESPN+ streaming service.

The MLB, NHL and NBA packages are also offered with a lower subscription fee than “NFL Sunday Ticket”, despite having longer seasons.

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

“They need to understand different audiences in terms of where they exist, how fans interact and what they are looking for,” he said. “They want things that fit and are tailored to their needs, because anything they overpay for is unwanted, and that’s the whole idea of ​​bundling. … The price they were offering on the ‘Sunday Ticket’ package was just a little extreme.”

Some were also surprised that the NFL allowed the case to go to trial without a resolution. The league has not done well in antitrust cases, and most of them settled before they went to trial.

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

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

The NFL and American Needle ultimately reached a settlement in 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. The 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 manner in which the NFL conducts its Sunday afternoon games will be withheld until all appeals are resolved.

During closing arguments, the plaintiffs presented a 2017 memo showing that the NFL was considering airing games not aired on Fox and CBS on cable channels.

There is also the possibility that the NFL will settle this matter sometime 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 plaintiff’s case was presented because of 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 at the Herrick law firm in New York. “And the NFL trying to attract wealthy owners may not have the best strategy. Hindsight is always 20/20.”