Multi-Billion Dollar Antitrust Lawsuit Threatens NFL’s Sunday Ticket Package

Opening arguments are scheduled for a class action lawsuit questioning the legitimacy of the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package. This could lead to significant changes in how professional sports teams generate revenue and negotiate television rights deals.

Initially filed in 2015, the legal case revolves around the NFL’s offering of games outside local markets that aren’t nationally televised on other networks. The lawsuit alleges that by confining the broadcast of these “out-of-market” games to the Sunday Ticket package, the NFL is essentially obligating customers who desire to watch only one team or a few select ones to incur supplementary charges.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys argued in the filing, “Given the relatively low cost of internet streaming and satellite and cable television carriage, each team acting independently would offer their games at a competitive price to anybody in the country who wanted to watch that particular team. Instead, however, the teams have all forgone this option in favor of creating a more lucrative monopoly.”

The plaintiffs are pursuing potential damages amounting to billions, a figure that could be tripled under antitrust regulations. In response, the NFL claims that the existing setup provides fans with the widest array of games available at a fair price.

Potential witnesses in the case include NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, team owners such as Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft, and executives representing various television networks and DirecTV. DirecTV previously held the exclusive rights to the Sunday Ticket package until it was acquired by Google-owned YouTube TV at the beginning of the last season for a reported annual cost of $2 billion. YouTube now charges fans a yearly fee of $449 for the package.

Currently, this case is being heard in federal court in Los Angeles. It originally experienced dismissal by a district court in 2017, only to be reinstated by the U.S. Court of Appeals in 2019. Legal representation for the case comes from attorneys at Susman Godfrey, a prominent national firm recognized for settling a case against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems for over $787 million before going to trial.