Yes, the NFL could”deconstruct” Sunday Ticket in the next wave of broadcast deals. The smart move might be to kill it immediately.
One of the strangest aspects of the NFL’s reaction to the $4.7 billion verdict in the class-action lawsuit attacking the Sunday Ticket price was the league’s decision to continue taking the same approach to the off-market package. The trial judge’s decision to vacate the 12-figure verdict (which would have become a 13-figure judgment) appeared to embolden the NFL in this regard, but the decision to vacate the damages did not erase the jury’s finding that the NFL had violated antitrust laws.
The argument against Sunday Ticket was quite simple. The league historically required its partner Sunday Ticket to charge fees high enough to entice many consumers who might have wanted to watch out-of-market games to settle for the in-market options offered by CBS and Fox.
The lengthy trial transcript (which we obtained and read shortly after the verdict was rendered) is replete with evidence of the NFL walking a tightrope between maximizing the value of CBS/Fox packages and offering Sunday Ticket. Multiple witnesses confirmed that CBS and Fox openly disdained the Sunday Ticket package and that the prices were specifically designed to appease networks that were paying huge fees to be able to broadcast games in a given market.
But the Sunday Ticket package endures, with continued exposure to new claims spanning the period not covered by the current class action. Frankly, the violation continues every Sunday of the football season.
It is somewhat surprising that the NFL has not yet been enjoined from continuing its continued violations of antitrust laws. The only recourse is for additional plaintiffs in additional class actions to seek reimbursement of the exorbitant prices they were charged in order to protect the NFL’s relationships with CBS and Fox.
It seems inevitable that the NFL will end the Sunday Ticket package, either as a result of a court order or to stop the financial hemorrhaging. The current deal with YouTube runs until 2029. In 2030 (if not sooner), Sunday Ticket could be replaced by another method of making off-market games available to consumers.
The new approach will certainly be cheaper. This could eventually result in Sunday afternoon out-of-market games being available on a variety of cable channels and/or streamers, with in-market games still being carried by CBS and Fox.
So, even though the current developments by the federal appeals court represent very bad news for the league, the end result could be very good news for consumers.
Gn sports
