NFL ordered to pay $4.7 billion in ‘Sunday Ticket’ lawsuit

The National Football League (NFL) has been ordered to pay over $4.7 billion in class-action damages for overcharging subscribers of its “Sunday Ticket” telecasts, a California federal jury decided on Thursday. 

According to the Associated Press, jurors in Los Angeles found that the NFL conspired with member teams to artificially inflate the price of "Sunday Ticket" for millions of residential and commercial subscribers. The jury awarded $4.6 billion to a residential class and $96 million to commercial subscribers such as bars and restaurants, according to an attorney for the plaintiffs.

Under U.S. antitrust law, a judge could potentially triple the damages, bringing the total judgment to over $14 billion. The NFL expressed disappointment with the jury's verdict, stating, "We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit."

The trial, which began on June 5, concluded more than a decade of litigation over the "Sunday Ticket" telecasts. Plaintiffs accused the NFL of using agreements with broadcast partners to maintain control over distribution, allowing DirecTV to charge higher prices as the former sole distributor. A residential subscription to "Sunday Ticket" now costs up to $449 through its current distributor, Google's YouTube.

Plaintiffs claimed the prices were inflated to limit subscriptions and protect distribution rights fees paid by CBS and Fox. The NFL denied any wrongdoing, arguing "Sunday Ticket" is a premium product expanding viewers' access to games already broadcast for free on local networks. The case involves at least 2.4 million residential customers and 48,000 commercial subscribers who purchased "NFL Sunday Ticket" between June 2011 and February 2023.