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The NFL has been ordered to pay $4.7 billion in damages after losing an antitrust lawsuit regarding its Sunday Ticket viewing package.
But it all could have been avoided.
Joe Reedy of the Associated Press reports that the league looked into killing its Sunday Ticket package altogether in 2017, but opted against the idea.
“In a trial that has lasted three weeks and featured testimony from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, the April 21, 2017, memo — titled the “NFL New Frontier” — provided one of the biggest highlights,” Reedy wrote.
So, what exactly is “NFL New Frontier.”
Well, it would have eliminated the Sunday Ticket package in favor a widespread cable package that showed every NFL game each weekend.
“The memo was a reimagining of Sunday afternoons where every game would be on a broadcast or cable network,” the report states. “Fox and CBS would have paid 25% less per game (approximately $10 million per game) while cable networks would have paid $9 million per game, which was the average doled out by DirecTV in its contract with the league.”
NFL Owners Killed Sunday Ticket Replacement That Fans Would Have Loved
So which networks would have carried games? It seems like all of them.
“The league memo showed early games on FS1, ESPN, ESPN2, TBS, TNT, NFL Network and CBS Sports Network with late games on FS1, TBS and TNT,” Reedy writes.
But the deal died before it gained any momentum. And we have team owners to thank.
“We’re not looking to get lots of people,” New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft said in his deposition during the trial. “We want to keep it as a premium offering.”
Kraft and his cohorts wanted to keep viewership limited. They felt that protected the value of games.
Now they’re stuck paying out a jaw-dropping sum in a class-action suit. Waita read the room, Robert.