A jury on Thursday said the National Football League (NFL) must pay nearly $4.8 billion for violating antitrust laws in its distribution of its “Sunday Ticket” package of out-of-market games to a single satellite TV service.
The verdict in the monthslong class-action trial awarded more than $4.6 billion in damages to a group of 2.4 million residential subscribers and $96 million in damages to a group of 48,000 businesses who subscribed to the service. The NFL could be liable for $14.39 billion, since damages can be tripled under federal antitrust laws, The Associated Press reported.
The NFL said it would appeal the verdict, in a statement Thursday.
“We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the league said in a statement.
“We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which features all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating teams and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is by far the most fan friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment,” the league continued. “We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit.”
Plaintiffs in the case argued the NFL sold the package of Sunday afternoon games at an inflated price and that the league restricted competition by offering the service only on DirecTV, a satellite provider.
“Justice was done. The verdict upholds protection for the consumers in our class. It was a great day for consumers,” plaintiffs attorney Bill Carmody said, the AP reported.
The NFL argued it could sell the out-of-market service under the antitrust exemption for broadcasting, but plaintiffs say that exemption does not cover pay TV.
The Associated Press contributed.