What's at Stake in NFL Sunday Ticket $6 Billion Class-Action Lawsuit?

YouTube sold the rights to Sunday ticket at bars to DIRECTV for Business. Netflix would need to do the same or similar for Christmas Day games. Also I assume in-market bars could show the free local broadcast.

 

Local teams will be aired on local stations. That has not changed.

 

Correct, but for the rest of the world will bars even be allowed to show the Steelers game on Christmas?

 

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And you have to wonder if this will ever change? Games on streaming services like Amazon and Netflix, why do they have to allow local stations the broadcast rights to games they paid the NFL for?

 

Only ones that serve duck that are open on Christmas.

 

can't wait to get my 10 dollar check!!!!!

 

SONS OF b*&^%!! BUMPUSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Wall Street Journal reported this could escalate to $21B, the $7B in damages claimed and tripling due to anti-trust. I would be surprised if the NFL doesn't settle this.

The lawsuit started in 2015 by the Mucky Duck, a bar in SF. They were mad that Sunday Ticket was costing them $2k/month.

 

I believe it has to. I think the NFL has some deal with the government due to how much tax payer money is involved in stadiums and the fact that unlike the other professional sports, the NFL is one big business instead of 30 separate businesses like Baseball and Hockey.

 

Wow Mike Florio really opened my eyes on this one. The reason DirectTV or Youtube is not involved in this lawsuit is because they are on the opposite side of the NFL on this lawsuit. They would want to be able to offer smaller and cheaper products to their customers. This lawsuit is against the NFL, because they intentionally did not allow the NFL package to be cheaper or smaller, Single team, or even Single game pricing, to force people to watch the Weekly Fox and CBS programming.

What this Lawsuit may do is allow people to start being able to buy cheaper single team or even single games.

I will admit if I could just buy the Steeler package, I would be a pretty happy guy.

Team by Team, Week by Week or even single game Packages.

 

Never will happen. I got the NFL Sunday Ticket in 1997, and was told that's what they were shooting for since , and it never happened. The last thing the NFL wants is for only certain teams to be making money. Teams like Steelers, and Cryboys for example would drag in money left ,and right, and teams like Cardinals, and Panthers would look terrible outside their own small market. The NFL doesn't want anything like this happening.

 

I have said this once i said it a million times… money isnt buying you a championship… this right here proves my point.. if that was the case Yankees would win every single year

 

Yeah but a money team wins the World Series. Arizona beating the Phillies was nice. A 100+ million dollar team stopping a 200+ million dollar team from going to the WS. Alas the 200+ million dollar Rangers won the WS. The last "lucky" team doing it with a small payroll was the Miami Marlins back in 2003. If I recall they broke that team up in the off season?

Money may not guarantee a Championship but 99% of the time that team is in Playoffs. I'd bet my bottom dollar this year WS winner will have a payroll of 200+ million.

I think the Mets and Padres (why San Diego has any sport teams is beyond me) were two teams that spent the $$$ but it didn't work out.

 

If you do enjoy watching the Dodgers MLB website is not that expensive. I pay 119.00 a season to watch the Pirates. You can watch all the games and 4 at a time if you so desire. If you wait until Fathers Day it's half price.

 

My friend who is a tad bit odd told me that NLF on Netflix is a sign of the end.

 

ESPN proposed $70 for the full season and estimated they would make the same amount of money with five times as many subscribers. AppleTV wanted to expand to 15-20M viewers from the current 1.3M by offering more affordable options.

Robert Kraft said they don’t want a lot of people but have it be a premium option.

 

Crazy thought, If the NFL loses this $21 Billion lawsuit, could this cause the Salary Cap for next year to go down because of decrease Broadcast Revenue if the $21 Billion comes out of NFL Sunday Ticket Revenue?


In Case you were wondering where the $21 Billion came from.
The NFL isn’t liable for losing a game, but there’s an ongoing class-action lawsuit related to its Sunday Ticket package. Here’s the scoop: In 2015, subscribers filed a lawsuit claiming that the NFL violated antitrust laws by allowing DirecTV to exclusively sell the “Sunday Ticket” package at an inflated price and restricting competition. The plaintiffs are asking for $7 billion in damages, but due to antitrust rules, that amount could triple to a staggering $21 billion. Keep in mind that this lawsuit isn’t about individual game outcomes; it’s about the league’s broadcasting practices.

 

I think it will be tied up for years with appeals and maybe Supreme Court, so not likely to impact next year unless the judge orders them to start paying now. The league annual revenue is around $20 billion so we are talking a huge hit.

They reported that each team gets $62.5 million each year from Sunday Ticket, so if that goes down it could affect the cap.

Jerry Jones said he would not be in favor of a cap if he could sell his media rights himself. So maybe the whole cap system goes away?

 

The thing is, the NFL is not wrong.

The NFL said in a statement that it will appeal the verdict.

"We are disappointed with the jury's verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit. 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 said.

I mean, The Pirates and Pens are cable TV only, no over the air even for local teams. Now they offer a paid streaming, but again, you can't ever watch them for free.........unlike the NFL where not only are the local games always free, but the playoffs and super bowl are free.

 

Salary Cap going down? $14 Billion in Damages now owed by the NFL. I bet all player contract negotiations have just stopped as the NFL tries to regroup and figure out what is next. (That is over $400 million per team)


What $4 billion lawsuit verdict means for NFL and fans after biggest ever court loss (msn.com)
A $4 billion verdict was reached in the federal class action lawsuit filed by “Sunday Ticket” subscribers against the NFL.

On Thursday, a jury in Los Angeles found the NFL liable in the watershed case, determining that the league did in fact break antitrust laws by selling its “Sunday Ticket” package at an inflated price. According to journalist Meghann Cuniff, plaintiffs that fall under the residential customer category have been awarded $4.7 billion, while commercial establishments were granted an additional $96 million.

Under federal antitrust laws, these damages will be tripled, raising the total amount owed by the NFL to over $14 billion.

 

Of course, the Judge can throw it all out tomorrow if he wants to.

 

I guess we will see. We all know greed runs rampant, but free market is just that. Not claiming any real legal knowledge, but wondering as it works its way through the system how this will hold up. I remember going back a few decades when the USFL won a lawsuit against the NFL for anti-trust issues and was awarded 1 buck...lol.

 

I know posting of links for this topic is a bit repetitious but this one uses a Steeler fan living in Seattle as their test case of who benefited from Sunday Ticket. Me, I'm just holding out for my share of the $4.7 billion. Assuming the attorneys go Pro-Bono, this translates to $1,880 for each of us 2.5 million DTV Sunday Ticket subscribers. Hell, that would almost pay for a half tank of gas and a Big Gulp here in California.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...illion-in-sunday-ticket-class-action-lawsuit/

 

That is assuming the CA legislature does not pass a law and try to grab 'their' portion of that payout. The tax for being a steeler fan just might prove to be far to equitable for the lawmakers to pass up, lol.

Seriously though I am still trying to grasp how we got to this point. From what I gather the point is the individuals feel they should have the option of picking and choosing individual teams and/or games, regardless of where they live? If it survives the appeals it will undoubtably change the entire league structure.

 

I want more than that. I've had NFL Sunday Ticket since 1997. It was so long ago that you went ,and bought the Direct TV stuff at a store, and hooked it up yourself.