NFL Set for $4.7 Billion in ‘Sunday Ticket’ Antitrust Trial

By Mike Scarcella

(Reuters) – The National League of American Football must pay more than $4.7 billion in class action damages for charging too much to subscribers to its “Sunday Ticket” television broadcasts, a California federal court ruled on Thursday.

A Los Angeles jury agreed with plaintiffs that the NFL conspired with member teams to artificially inflate the price of the “Sunday Ticket” for millions of individual and commercial subscribers.

According to a lawyer for the plaintiffs, the jury awarded damages of $4.6 billion to residential entities and $96 million to commercial entities such as bars and restaurants.

The judge could award triple damages under U.S. antitrust law, bringing the total damages to more than $14 billion.

The NFL said in a statement that it was disappointed with the jury’s verdict. “We will certainly challenge this decision because we believe the class action claims in this case are without merit and without merit,” it said.

Earlier this week, the NFL asked the court to rule in favor of the league and its teams, which could overturn the verdict.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs said in a statement Thursday: “We are pleased with today’s outcome on behalf of the classes we represent.”

The trial, which began on June 5, ended more than a decade of litigation over the broadcast of Sunday Ticket.

Subscribers accused the NFL of using agreements with broadcast partners to maintain control over distribution, which allowed DirecTV to artificially higher prices as the former sole distributor of “Sunday Ticket.”

A residential subscription for the “Sunday Ticket,” which is the only streaming option for fans to watch out-of-market games, now costs a whopping $449 through its current distributor, Google’s YouTube. DirecTV and Google were not defendants in the lawsuit.

DirecTV is owned by AT&T and Google is owned by Alphabet.

The plaintiffs alleged that the “Sunday Ticket” prices were inflated in order to limit subscriptions and protect the distribution rights fees CBS and Fox paid to broadcast the games in local markets.

The NFL denies any wrongdoing and says Sunday Ticket is a “premium” product that expands viewers’ access to games that are already broadcast for free on local networks.

The plaintiffs are DirecTV subscribers who purchased “NFL Sunday Ticket” between June 2011 and February 2023. The case involves at least 2.4 million residential customers and 48,000 commercial subscribers, such as bars and restaurants, according to court documents.

(Reporting by Mike Scarcella in Washington, editing by David Bario and Matthew Lewis)