After nearly a decade of intense litigation, a class-action lawsuit challenging the NFL’s “Sunday Ticket” is finally moving to trial.According to CBS News, the claim—first filed in 2015—centers on the “Sunday Ticket,” and whether the NFL violated antitrust laws by offering related subscription packages to American consumers.The “Sunday Ticket,” adds CBS News, was first rolled out in 1994. The “Ticket” was, at the time, advertised to so-called “out-of-market” customers who wanted to watch professional football games from a different region or state.Before its release, fans traveling within the United States—or living far from their hometown—would have had few convenient options to tune into out-of-market matches.But today, with technology vastly improved, there is much less practical need for a subscription service that offers what could easily be accomplished through a satellite service or a digital streaming platform.Attorneys for the class say, for much of its lifespan, the “Sunday Ticket” was hosted exclusively by DirecTV—an arrangement that the lawsuit characterizes as monopolistic, and posits as having come at a high cost to consumers.

The Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. Image via Flickr/user:pasa (Paul Sableman). (CCA-BY-2.0). (source: https://flickr.com/photos/53301297@N00/9721837046).

“NFL, FOX, CBS, and DirecTV agreed to make an expensive toll road that very few people would be able to afford,” attorney Amanda Bonn said in her opening statement. “Every single competitor in this scheme benefited.”The NFL, in contrast, has continued to argue that the “Sunday Ticket” carries a high price tag precisely because it was always intended to be a high-price service.“The case is about choice,” NFL lawyer Beth Wilkinson said. “This is a valuable, premium product. Think about all the choices available to fans. We want as many people as possible to watch the free broadcasts.”The “Ticket,” Wilkinson said, was originally designed to ensure that customers who wanted to watch out-of-market matches would be able to do so—without posing any substantive risk to network partners who would lose ratings if they were obliged to broadcast games unlikely to garner local interest.“The NFL always wanted ‘Sunday Ticket’ to be an additional package,” she said. “That is how it was designed since its inception.”Roger Goodell, who has served as the NFL’s commissioner for nearly 20 years, also took the stand to explain why the league has yet to offer a streaming equivalent for the “Ticket.”“Streaming was not ready for prime time,” Goodell said, referencing the NFL’s decision to continue its “Sunday Ticket” contract with DirecTV between 2020 and 2022.The NFL did eventually end its partnership with DirectTV, and brought the “Sunday Ticket” onto YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels streaming in December 2022.

Sources

NFL facing class-action lawsuit over 'Sunday Ticket' that could cost league more than $21 billionRoger Goodell testifies 'Sunday Ticket' is 'a premium product'