A U.S. District Court jury has ordered the NFL to pay nearly $4.8 billion in damages after determining that the league violated antitrust laws in distributing out-of-market Sunday afternoon games via a premium subscription service.
The jury awarded $4.7 billion in damages to the residential class and $96 million to the commercial class.
The lawsuit involved 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses that purchased the out-of-market games package from DirecTV between the 2011 and 2022 seasons. The plaintiffs claimed the NFL inflated prices for the “Sunday Ticket” package and restricted competition by offering it exclusively through a satellite provider.
The NFL announced its intention to appeal the verdict, which would go to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and potentially the Supreme Court.
“We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the league stated. “We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which features all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating teams and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket, and NFL+, is by far the most fan-friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment. We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit.”
The jury, consisting of five men and three women, deliberated for nearly five hours before reaching their decision.
“This case transcends football. This case matters,” plaintiffs’ attorney Bill Carmody said during closing arguments. “It’s about justice. It’s about telling the 32 team owners who collectively own all the big TV rights, the most popular content in the history of TV — that’s what they have. It’s about telling them that even you cannot ignore the antitrust laws. Even you cannot collude to overcharge consumers. Even you can’t hide the truth and think you’re going to get away with it.”
The NFL argued that it has the right to sell “Sunday Ticket” under its antitrust exemption for broadcasting. The plaintiffs contended that this exemption only applies to over-the-air broadcasts, not pay TV.
DirecTV held the rights to “Sunday Ticket” from its inception in 1994 until 2022. The NFL signed a seven-year deal with Google’s YouTube TV starting with the 2023 season.
The lawsuit was initially filed in 2015 by the Mucky Duck sports bar in San Francisco but was dismissed in 2017. In 2019, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over California and eight other states, reinstated the case. Last year, Judge Gutierrez ruled that the case could proceed as a class action.
