The NFL had a major decision overturned: A federal judge on Thursday threw out a $4.7 billion jury award to subscribers of the league’s Sunday Ticket, ruling that the verdict was not supported by evidence presented in the class action case was presented.
In his ruling, Judge Philip Gutierrez of the US District Court for the Central District of California wrote that “the jury’s damages finding is clearly not supported by the evidence and must be overturned.” The judge said the $4.7 billion price was based on “guesswork or speculation.”
On June 27, a federal jury in LA ordered the NFL to pay $4.7 billion in damages after finding that the league conspired with DirecTV and network partners to raise the price of the exclusive Sunday Ticket games package, which includes access to all out-of-market games. games on Sunday afternoon during the regular season. The NFL had said it planned to appeal the verdict.
In a statement, the NFL said: “We are grateful for today’s ruling in the Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit. We believe the NFL’s media distribution model gives our fans a variety of options to follow the game they love, including local broadcasts of every game on free over-the-air television. We thank Judge Gutierrez for his time and attention to this case and look forward to an exciting 2024 NFL season.”
The class action lawsuit, originally filed in 2015, represented more than 2.4 million residential subscribers and more than 48,000 restaurants, bars and other commercial establishments who purchased Sunday Ticket when it was still distributed by DirecTV.
DirecTV had been the distribution partner for Sunday Ticket since 1994 until the 2023-2024 NFL season. DirecTV lost its hold on Sunday Ticket for consumers when Google struck a seven-year deal with the NFL to sell the package through YouTube. Currently, Sunday Ticket includes all out-of-market regular season NFL games on Sundays airing on Fox and CBS.
The trial revealed that Disney’s ESPN had offered to acquire the NFL’s Sunday Ticket rights starting with the 2023-2024 season, which would have priced the package at $70 per season to cover all Sunday out-of-market games for individual teams to view. The YouTube 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).