The NFL is defending itself in federal court against a class-action lawsuit claiming that its NFL Sunday Ticket package, a fixture on DirecTV from 1994 to 2023, inflated prices for out-of-market Sunday afternoon football games, violating antitrust laws. The lawsuit also says the package restricted competition because it was made available through a satellite-TV service and not competing cable companies.
The lawsuit, which was delayed from earlier this year and put in the hands of a jury against the NFL’s wishes, affects 2.4 million residential customers and 48,000 businesses who paid for the sports package from 2011 through 2022.
The long-running suit was first filed in 2015 by a San Francisco bar called Mucky Duck, but has finally gone to trial. On Monday, commissioner Roger Goodell took the stand in a Los Angeles federal court, testifying that Sunday Ticket was always a premium product.
“Fans make (the) choice whether they wanted it or not,” he said, according to the Associated Press. “I’m sure there were fans who said it was too costly.”
Goodell also said on the stand that the league was unhappy with DirecTV in its final years of its Sunday Ticket partnership, but was unwilling to offer the package on streaming because as Goodell put it, “Streaming was not ready for prime time.”
The suit could cost the NFL up to $7 billion if it’s found liable, with antitrust penalties tripling that amount to $21 billion. The NFL sought to dismiss the case in January but was unsuccessful.
A website for plaintiffs in the case, nflsundayticketlawsuit.com, says that there are no guarantees that any money or benefits will come from the case. The case excludes customers who got the Sunday Ticket for free as a promotion or those who got it through the streaming NFLST.tv service.
