Topline
The National Football League was ordered to pay about $4.7 billion in damages over antitrust violations related to its “Sunday Ticket” programming and packages, which fans in a class action suit alleged were overpriced, multiple outlets reported Thursday.
Key Facts
A Los Angeles jury Thursday agreed with football fans who filed a class action lawsuit against the NFL alleging the league conspired with teams and DirecTV to make it more expensive to watch out-of-market games.
The jury determined the class of “Sunday Ticket” subscribers should get $4.7 billion and the class of businesses who paid for the package should get $96 million from the league, according to the Associated Press.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell argued in the trial the price of the “Sunday Ticket” package was determined by DirecTV alone, Bloomberg reported.
The league also tried to argue it had the right to sell “Sunday Ticket” under the antitrust exemption for broadcasting, though the plaintiffs argued that only applied to over-the-air broadcasts, ESPN reported.
The NFL said in a statement it is “disappointed with the jury’s verdict,” and continues to believe its media distribution strategy “is by far the most fan friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment” and they will contest the decision.
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Surprising Fact
In an unusual decision for class action suits, the NFL fought the case in a three-week trial as opposed to settling. The jury deliberated for about five hours across two days, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Key Background
The suit was first filed in 2015 by a San Francisco bar, though it was dismissed in 2017. Two years later, an appeals court reinstated the case and in 2023 a judge ruled it could move forward as a class action suit, the AP reported. DirecTV had an exclusive deal with the NFL to sell “Sunday Ticket” from its launch in 1994 until 2022, when the league signed a seven-year, $14 billion deal with YouTube and essentially moved “Sunday Ticket” to streaming, according to Deadline.
