Roger Goodell Testifies in $21 Billion ‘Sunday Ticket’ Antitrust Trial: ‘We Were Clear All Along That This Was a Premium Product’

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell testified Monday in federal court in Los Angeles that buyers of the off-the-market “NFL Sunday Ticket” package were well aware of its high value and did not pay more than $300 a season for it because the league colluded with its television partners and forced their hand.

“We have been clear throughout that this is a premium product. Not only in terms of price, but also in terms of quality,” Goodell said during the hearing. “Fans make that choice whether they want to or not. “I’m sure there were fans who said it was too expensive.”

(Monday’s court proceedings were covered by the Associated Press and other news outlets.)

Goodell testified in a class-action lawsuit involving more than 2.4 million “Sunday Ticket” individual subscribers and approximately 48,000 subscribing companies, each of which paid for a bundle in 2011-2022.

By selling “Sunday Ticket” exclusively through DirecTV’s limited pay-TV ecosystem at an inflated price during this time, plaintiffs allege that the NFL was able to continue to charge broadcasters including FOX, CBS and NBC high prices for television rights.

The plaintiffs argue that “Sunday Ticket” should have been more widely available than just DirecTV’s subscriber base and that the package should have been sold for significantly less than $100.

“The NFL’s deal with DirecTV ensured that more viewers would watch CBS and Fox, which in turn allowed the networks to pay the NFL a premium for broadcast rights,” plaintiff’s expert Daniel Rascher, a sports economist at the university, testified last week in San Francisco.

If the NFL is found liable, a jury could award as much as $7 billion in damages – a figure that could triple under antitrust damages rules.

The NFL maintains it has the right to sell the “Sunday Ticket” under its antitrust exemption for broadcasting. However, the plaintiffs respond that this exemption covers only the actual broadcasting and not the distribution of pay television.