A jury in the U.S. District Court ruled on Thursday that the NFL must pay over $4.7 billion in damages, concluding that the league violated antitrust laws by distributing out-of-market Sunday afternoon games through a premium subscription service.
The residential class was awarded $4.7 billion, and the commercial class received $96 million in damages. Due to federal antitrust laws allowing for tripling of damages, the NFL’s total liability could reach $14.39 billion.
The lawsuit involved 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses in the U.S. who purchased the out-of-market game package from DirecTV between the 2011 and 2022 seasons. The plaintiffs argued that the NFL breached antitrust laws by selling the Sunday game package at inflated prices and limiting competition by offering “Sunday Ticket” exclusively through a satellite provider.
The NFL announced its intention to appeal the verdict. “We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit. We believe our media distribution strategy, which includes free over-the-air broadcasts of all NFL games in participating team markets and national distribution of popular games, supplemented by options like RedZone, Sunday Ticket, and NFL+, is the most fan-friendly model in sports and entertainment,” the league stated.
“We will contest this decision as we believe the class action claims are without merit. We thank the jury for their time and service and appreciate Judge [Philip] Gutierrez’s guidance throughout the trial.”
Post-trial motions, including one to set aside the verdict, will be heard on July 31. If the verdict stands, the NFL plans to appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court.
If the NFL is required to pay the damages, each of the 32 teams could face a cost of approximately $449.6 million.
The three-week trial featured testimony from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. “Justice was done. The verdict upholds protection for the consumers in our class. It was a great day for consumers,” said plaintiffs’ attorney Bill Carmody.
In his closing remarks, Carmody presented a 2017 NFL memo that considered a scenario without “Sunday Ticket,” where cable channels would broadcast Sunday afternoon out-of-market games not aired on Fox or CBS.
The jury, consisting of five men and three women, deliberated for nearly five hours before reaching their decision.
The payment of damages and any changes to the “Sunday Ticket” package or the NFL’s broadcast methods will be delayed until all appeals are concluded.
The NFL argued that it had the right to sell “Sunday Ticket” under its antitrust exemption for broadcasting. The plaintiffs countered that this exemption only applied to over-the-air broadcasts, not pay TV.
Other professional sports leagues closely watched this case, as they also offer out-of-market packages. However, unlike the NFL, MLB, the NBA, and the NHL market their packages through multiple distributors and share revenue per subscriber instead of receiving a lump sum rights fee.
DirecTV held the “Sunday Ticket” rights from its inception in 1994 until 2022. The NFL has since 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 Ninth Circuit, which oversees California and eight other states, reinstated the case. Judge Gutierrez allowed the case to proceed as a class action last year.