Jury Decides NFL Must Pay Billions in Sunday Ticket Suit

Tripling antitrust damages would put the league's tab at $14B
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 27, 2024 6:55 PM CDT
NFL Ordered to Pay Billions After Losing Sunday Ticket Suit
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, center, arrives at federal court June 18 in Los Angeles.   (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

A federal jury decided against the NFL on Thursday, telling the league to pay nearly $5 billion in damages for artificially inflating the price of Sunday Ticket, a subscription TV service. The decision after a monthlong trial in the class-action lawsuit could change the way fans watch the sport, the Washington Post reports. The amounts awarded constituted most of what the plaintiffs sought. "It's a great day for consumers everywhere," said Bill Carmody, one of their lawyers, per the New York Times.

The NFL immediately said it would appeal. The jury awarded $4.7 billion to a group of plaintiffs that bought the Sunday Ticket package offered by DirecTV, and $96 million to a separate group of bar owners. Damages in such cases can be tripled by law, so the league could be on the hook for more than $14 billion. Sportico estimates the NFL's annual revenue at $20 billion. The judge could decide the verdict was wrong when he hears post-trial motions next month. Or an appeals court could change the damage amounts.

The antitrust lawsuit class included 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses that bought the DirecTV package of out-of-market games from the 2011 through 2022 seasons, per the AP. In addition to inflating the price, the league restricted competition by offering Sunday Ticket only through a satellite provider, the suit said. The league designed the package to protect the ratings of its network partners, a former NFL executive testified. Nothing will change in the media rights while the case is being appealed. If the decision holds, one expert said a possible outcome is the teams "selling their own games, where you'd end up with lots of games on lots of channels on Sunday." (More NFL stories.)

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