In a landmark decision, a jury has ruled that the NFL must pay over $4.7 billion in damages for violating antitrust laws with its “Sunday Ticket” subscription pricing. This decision marks a significant moment in the ongoing battle over sports broadcasting rights.
The ruling includes $4.7 billion for residential subscribers and an additional $96 million for commercial subscribers, such as bars and restaurants, as reported by legal analyst Meghann Cuniff. Under federal antitrust law, these damages could potentially triple, soaring past $14 billion.
The case centered around the NFL’s “Sunday Ticket” subscription program for out-of-market games. The jury found that the NFL conspired with network partners to artificially inflate prices, thereby violating antitrust laws.
The NFL, in a statement, expressed its intent to appeal the decision, maintaining confidence in its media distribution strategy. “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… is by far the most fan-friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment,” the statement read.
The class-action lawsuit represented 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses that purchased the Sunday Ticket package from the NFL and DirecTV between 2011 and 2023. The plaintiffs argued that the NFL rejected numerous opportunities to reduce the subscription package’s price.
During the trial, evidence was presented, including a recent proposal from ESPN that would have lowered the Sunday Ticket price to $70 per year, a significant drop from the current annual cost of $349 on YouTube TV.
Despite the federal antitrust exemption for broadcasting sports, the plaintiffs argued that this exemption only applied to over-the-air broadcasts and not subscription packages. The jury agreed, finding that DirecTV had “knowingly entered the price-fixing conspiracy” with the NFL.
