A federal court on Thursday rejected a jury's $4.7 billion award to the league's Sunday Ticket subscribers, finding that the verdict was not supported by evidence presented in the class-action case.
In his decision, Judge Philip Gutierrez of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California wrote that “the jury’s verdict on compensatory damages is clearly not supported by the evidence and should be reversed.” The judge said the $4.7 billion award was based on “conjecture or speculation.”
On June 27, a federal jury in Los Angeles ordered the NFL to pay $4.7 billion in damages after finding that the league conspired with DirecTV and network partners to increase the price of its exclusive Sunday ticket package, which provides access to all out-of-market games played on Sunday afternoons during the regular season. The NFL said it plans to appeal the ruling.
“We are grateful for today’s ruling in the Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the NFL said in a statement. “We believe the NFL’s media distribution model provides our fans with a range of options to watch the game they love, including local broadcasts of each game on free-to-air television. We thank Judge Gutierrez for his time and attention to this case and look forward to an exciting NFL season in 2024.”
The class action lawsuit, originally filed in 2015, represents more than 2.4 million residential subscribers and more than 48,000 restaurants, bars and other businesses that purchased Sunday Ticket when it was still distributed by DirecTV.
Through the 2023-24 NFL season, DirecTV has been the distribution partner for Sunday Ticket since 1994. DirecTV lost control of Sunday Ticket for consumers when Google signed a seven-year deal with the NFL to sell the package via YouTube. Currently, Sunday Ticket includes all out-of-market regular-season NFL games that air on Fox and CBS.
The trial revealed that Disney’s ESPN offered to acquire the rights to Sunday Ticket from the NFL starting with the 2023-24 season, and the package was to be priced at $70 per season to watch all out-of-market Sunday games for individual teams. YouTube’s price for Sunday Ticket is $349 per season (if purchased in a bundle with YouTube TV) or $449 per season (if purchased as a standalone package).
