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NFL commissioner Roger Goodell found himself in a California courtroom this week having to defend the league’s Sunday Ticket package in a lawsuit that could find the NFL liable for $21 billion.
A class-action lawsuit filed in 2015 and certified last year accuses the National Football League of breaking antitrust laws by allowing DirectTV, which owned the rights to Sunday Ticket from 1994 to 2022, to inflate the price of the service.
The lawsuit also alleges that in addition to the inflation of prices, the NFL also restricted competition by only offering the service on a satellite provider.
“’We have been clear throughout that it is a premium product. Not just on pricing but quality,’ Goodell said during cross-examination in a Los Angeles courtroom. ‘Fans make that choice whether they wanted it or not. I’m sure there were fans who said it was too costly.'”
“Goodell said the NFL decided to put Sunday Ticket on DirecTV from 1994 through 2022 because it was one the few platforms available that had national distribution. He cited the fragmented nature of cable companies for why it wasn’t available on cable.” [via AP]
The class-action Sunday Ticket lawsuit has over 2.4 million defendants, made up of over 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses who purchased Sunday Ticket between 2011 and 2022.
Since the 2023 season, YouTubeTV has been the new provider of Sunday Ticket and has a contract with the NFL that runs through 2029. Currently, YouTubeTV is charging $449 per season for a subscription to NFL Sunday Ticket.
NFL Sunday Ticket, which launched 30 years ago on September 4, 1994, is largely credited as being the brainchild of famed Bar Rescue host Jon Taffer.
.@jontaffer explains the mentality behind getting raucous on @BarRescue.
"Everybody who sees me in that maniac mentality, I want you to understand it's deliberate. I'm often not that mad, but they need to think I am."
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— BroBible (@BroBible) August 4, 2021