Caleb Harris
A class action lawsuit that has been working its way through the court system for almost 10 years is finally seeing the light of day in a court of law and it is a case that could cost the court dearly. NFL more than US$21 billion.
The case, which was originally filed in 2015, revolves around the “Sunday Ticket” and whether the NFL violated any antitrust laws by offering this package to consumers. Starting in 1994, the NFL began offering the “Sunday Ticket” as an option for out-of-market fans who wanted to watch their home team. For example, a Steelers fan living in Seattle wouldn’t have had many options for watching a Pittsburgh game before 1994, but with the inception of “Sunday Ticket,” that fan had a way to watch every Steelers game.
The plaintiffs’ argument is quite simple: They think the NFL worked together with its network partners to inflate the price of the “Sunday Ticket.” The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Amanda Bonn, said that the price of the “Sunday Ticket” is unaffordable for most people.
“NFL, Fox, CBS and DirecTV have agreed to build an expensive toll road that very few people could afford,” Bonn said in his opening statement, via Associated Press. “All competitors of this scheme benefited.”
As for the NFL, league attorney Beth Wilkinson argued that the “Sunday Ticket” is expensive because it is a premium offering.
“It’s a matter of choice. This is a valuable, premium product. Think about all the options available to fans. We want as many people as possible to watch the free broadcasts,” Wilkinson said, via AP.
The NFL designed “Sunday Ticket” to not take away a large portion of its network partners’ TV viewership, according to former NFL executive Steve Bornstein, who testified Thursday.
“The NFL always wanted ‘Sunday Ticket’ to be an add-on package. That’s how it was designed from the beginning,” Bornstein said.
If the NFL were to lose this case, it could be extremely costly. The plaintiffs are asking for $7.1 billion in damages, but because this is a federal antitrust case, the law requires that number to be tripled, meaning there is potentially $21.3 billion at stake for the NFL. Overall, this is a case that covers all residential and commercial customers who subscribed to the “Sunday Ticket” between 2012 and 2022, which puts the number of class action lawsuits at almost 2.5 million people, according to the AP.
DirecTV had the “Sunday Ticket” package from 1994 to 2022 before YouTube TV took over last season.
When it comes to the justice system, the NFL generally doesn’t let things get that far. However, the league paid $790 million Louis and several other entities after resolving a case in 2021 that revolved around the relocation of the Rams.
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