The NFL got a major call overturned: A federal judge Thursday threw out a jury’s $4.7 billion award to subscribers of the league’s Sunday Ticket, finding that the verdict was unsupported by evidence presented in the class-action case.
In his decision, Judge Philip Gutierrez of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California wrote that the “jury’s damages verdict is clearly not supported by the evidence and must be vacated.” The judge said the $4.7 billion award was based on “guesswork or speculation.”
On June 27, a federal jury in L.A. ordered the NFL to pay $4.7 billion in damages after finding the league conspired with DirecTV and network partners to increase the price of the exclusive Sunday Ticket games package, which provides access to all out-of-market 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 that the NFL’s media distribution model provides our fans with an array of options to follow the game they love, including local broadcasts of every single 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 that purchased Sunday Ticket when it was still distributed by DirecTV.
Until the 2023-24 NFL season, DirecTV had been the distribution partner for Sunday Ticket since 1994. DirecTV lost its hold on Sunday Ticket for consumers when Google secured a seven-year deal with the NFL to sell the package via YouTube. Currently, Sunday Ticket includes all out-of-market Sunday regular-season NFL games that are broadcast on Fox and CBS.
The trial revealed that Disney’s ESPN had offered to acquire Sunday Ticket rights from the NFL starting with the 2023-24 season that would have priced the package at $70 per season to watch all Sunday out-of-market games for single teams. YouTube’s pricing for Sunday Ticket is $349 per season (if purchased in a bundle with YouTube TV) or $449 per season (if purchased as a stand-alone package).