NFL Thrown for Loss in Sunday Ticket Lawsuit

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A Los Angeles jury has found the NFL guilty of antitrust violations in a class action lawsuit filed by former NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers through DirecTV. The Sunday Ticket package allowed people to pay several hundred dollars a season to watch all Sunday NFL games that were not locally televised (typically 10-12 a week). The jury awarded $4.7 billion for residential subscribers and $96 million for commercial subscribers (bars, etc.). Since anti-trust damages can be tripled, the final verdict would be over $14 billion. This could amount to $450 million per NFL team. One of the primary complaints from subscribers (myself included) was that the package was offered on an "all or nothing" basis, so fans of one team could not pay a reduced amount just to see their team's games.

I had Sunday Ticket for a couple of seasons, so I could be in line for a partial refund once all appeals are finalized. Last season (and this), the package moved to YouTubeTV. Under the terms of the court's ruling, there won't be any changes to this year's Sunday Ticket package offerings until appeals are finalized (I've already got an ad asking me to subscribe. MLB, NBA, and NHL also have similar packages available, but the fee structure under those packages is different, so they won't be directly impacted by this ruling.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/404 ... icket-case