The NFL—and millions of consumers—will have to wait for a federal judge’s multibillion-dollar decision in the NFL Sunday Ticket case.
Judge Philip Gutierrez didn’t immediately rule on the NFL’s motion to overturn last month’s $4.7 billion jury verdict against the league at the conclusion of a hearing that spanned about three hours in a Los Angeles federal courtroom Wednesday.
The damages in the case could be tripled under U.S. antitrust law, meaning the NFL may conceivably be on the hook for over $14 billion—more than the league takes in each year in U.S. broadcast and streaming revenue.
Exactly how the jury came to the award amount was one of the focal points during the hearing. NFL lawyers argued that the award wasn’t based on evidence presented at trial—and Gutierrez appeared to agree with the assessment.
“They didn’t follow the [jury] instructions,” Gutierrez said during the hearing per the Courthouse News Service.
The NFL vowed to fight the verdict immediately after the jury’s decision was handed down June 27, including an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
“Today we asked the district court to set aside the jury’s verdict in this case, which is contrary to the law and unsupported by the evidence presented at trial,” the NFL said in a statement. “We will continue to pursue all avenues in defense of the claims brought in this case.”
If Gutierrez does retain the verdict and triple the damages, each NFL team would be on the hook for about $400 million. The NFL would also face the possibility that it’d have to come up with the cash before mounting an appeal.
Beyond setting aside the verdict, Gutierrez could also reduce the damage award or order a new trial. Gutierrez is expected to make his decision in the coming weeks.
Lawyers for the NFL argued during the hearing and in filings beforehand that jury’s $4.7 billion award was adding up the discounts—not the average price—consumers paid for Sunday Ticket. Gutierrez cautioned that judges are typically hesitant about questioning award amounts, but the path the jury took raises issues.
“Is it rational to say the damages are the discounts?” Gutierrez asked one of the plaintiff’s attorneys during the hearing per the Courthouse News Service. “It’s not even a discount that applies to this case. That’s even more irrational.”
Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued the jury had the authority to levy more than $7 billion in damages.
How It Began
The litigation started in 2015 when the owner of the Mucky Duck, a sports bar based in San Francisco, alleged in a lawsuit that the NFL broke antitrust law in how it bundled the out-market-games into its Sunday Ticket package.
That case was dismissed in 2017 before it was reinstated on appeal two years later. Eventually, it became a class-action suit that included millions of bars, restaurants, and consumers who subscribed to Sunday Ticket from June 17, 2011, through Feb. 7, 2023. DirecTV was the exclusive home for Sunday Ticket from 1994 through 2022.
In a trial that spanned three weeks in June, it was revealed that ESPN sought to offer Sunday Ticket for $70 and Apple was also in the mix to take over for DirecTV after the 2022 season. Either giant taking over may have caused an explosion in subscriber count with a lower base price for Sunday Ticket, which could have agitated the streaming and broadcast companies that pay the NFL more than $10 billion a year.
“We’re not looking to get lots of people,” Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who is chair of the NFL media committee, said in a deposition played for the jury. “We want to keep it as a premium offering.”
Google’s YouTubeTV became the new home of Sunday Ticket starting in the 2023 season as part of a seven-year, $14 billion deal, a huge spike over the $300 million per year that DirecTV paid in the final years of its contract. Sunday Ticket currently costs $449 annually for non–YouTubeTV subscribers and $349 a year for YouTubeTV subscribers.
