Closing Arguments Begin in Class Action Lawsuit Against NFL Filed by Sunday Ticket Subscribers

LOS ANGELES (AP) – The jury in a class-action lawsuit filed by “Sunday Ticket” subscribers will receive instructions and hear closing arguments Wednesday before deliberations begin.

U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez will issue jury instructions, and plaintiffs will make their closing statements in the morning session. The NFL will make closing statements after lunch. Each side will have 1 hour and 10 minutes to make their statements, and plaintiffs will have an additional 20 minutes to rebuttal.

The lawsuit began on June 6 and included 10 days of testimony from economists and league executives, including NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

On Tuesday morning, Gutierrez denied the plaintiffs’ motion to enter judgment on their behalf as a matter of law. He filed an NFL motion pending sentencing.

This means that even if the jury rules in favor of the plaintiffs, Gutierrez could still rule in favor of the NFL and find that the plaintiffs failed to prove their case.

Gutierrez alluded to that possibility last week when he said, “I’m wrestling with the plaintiffs’ case” as he hears motions from both sides.

The lawsuit covers 2.4 million individual subscribers and 48,000 businesses who paid for a package of out-of-market games from the 2011-2022 seasons on DirecTV. It claims the league violated antitrust laws by selling a package of Sunday games broadcast on CBS and Fox at an inflated price. Subscribers also claim the league limits competition by offering “Sunday Ticket” only from a satellite provider.

The league maintains it has the right to sell “Sunday Ticket” under an antitrust exemption for broadcasts. The plaintiffs argue that this only applies to terrestrial broadcasts, not pay TV.

DirecTV has owned “Sunday Ticket” since its inception in 1994-2022. The league signed a seven-year deal with Google YouTube TV that began with the 2023 season.

Even though “Sunday Ticket” is available to more fans since switching to a streaming provider, the prices are higher than DirecTV. The league has maintained throughout the trial that “Sunday Ticket” is a premium product.

Former CBS Sports president Sean McManus said in a memo to the NFL and during testimony that the network thought “it was always assumed that these packages were sold at a higher price, which limited distribution.”

Fox Sports executive vice president Larry Jones said during a 2022 deposition that it was important for the network to keep “Sunday Ticket” a premium product so it wouldn’t impact local ratings.

“We think it’s important for it to be a premium product that complements our TV programming. And as long as it is a premium product, the scope of distribution will be determined by the market,” he said.

Jones agreed if it meant that the more expensive the “Sunday Ticket” was, the fewer subscribers he would have.

If the NFL is found liable, a jury could award $7 billion in damages, but that number could rise to $21 billion because antitrust cases could triple damages. It would also change how the league would have to distribute out-of-market programming and could lead to the renegotiation of contracts with Fox and CBS. The current agreements with the league run through the 2033 season.

CBS and Fox pay an average of $4.3 billion per season for Sunday afternoon games, while YouTube TV pays an average of $2 billion per season for Sunday Ticket rights.

The lawsuit was originally filed in 2015 by San Francisco sports bar Mucky Duck, but was dismissed in 2017. Two years later, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over California and eight other states, revived the case. Last year, Gutierrez ruled that the case could be litigated as a class action.

Whatever the decision, the losing side is expected to appeal to the 9th Circuit and then possibly to the Supreme Court.