Will the NFL have to pay $4 billion after losing ‘Sunday Ticket’ lawsuit?
The NFL faces an unprecedented situation following a ruling in a California court. While it remains unclear how this affects operations, a change is coming.
There is no way to understate the hit that the NFL took this week after it was ordered to pay billions in damages. While an appeal is certain, there is no guarantee that it will work in the league’s favor, leaving the questions about what comes next.
NFL to pay huge sum in Sunday Ticket case
According to reports on Thursday, A U.S. District Court in California ruled that the NFL must pay $4.7 billion to fans who paid for the Sunday Ticket streaming package and further $96 million to bars who argued they were overcharged for the streaming package. It doesn’t stop there either as it’s understood that the aforementioned amount is tripled under federal antitrust law to more than $14 billion. Needless to say, that is the single largest loss that the NFL has ever taken in its history. The league gave a stern comment in response to the ruling.
“We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the NFL said in a statement. “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 at 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. We thank the jury for their time and service and for the guidance and oversight from Judge Gutierrez throughout the trial.”
For context, our previous report covered the fact that the lawsuit stemmed from a claim made in 2015 by the Mucky Duck, a sports bar San Francisco which claimed that the NFL, its teams, and network partners are working together to sell the streaming package at an inflated price with no competition. Once the legal process was initiated, it was discovered that the NFL had in fact declined a proposal from ESPN to take over the rights in 2023 priced at $70 with single-team packages. Indeed, the NFL’s Sunday Ticket was hosted by YouTube TV this past season and is currently available for the not-so-affordable price of $349 per year. With that, the league will have to rethink how it broadcasts its games, something the fans apparently want to see. Who knew?