NFL Emails to Show Jury Proof of Price Control and Secret Deals

The National Football League coordinated with DirecTV and their network television partners to inflate the price of its premium Sunday Ticket game package and limit distribution, according to emails and memos presented to a federal jury in Los Angeles.

The NFL could have to pay an estimated $21 billion if it loses the jury trial over its premium Sunday Ticket broadcast package that allows fans to watch every out-of-market game, because damages are tripled under federal antitrust law. Proceedings started Wednesday with jury selection and continued Thursday before a packed courtroom that spilled into overflow seating. One juror fell asleep.

According to NFL memos, the league said in 2001, “at a minimum, the NFL must ensure that it maintains complete control over pricing and packaging of Sunday Ticket and any future program offerings,” said plaintiffs attorney Amanda Bonn of Susman Godfrey LLP, a lawyer for thousands of subscribers who sued.

Bonn argued the league’s 1998 internal presentation showed an illegal agreement that restricts outputs and hurts competition.

The agreement between the NFL and its broadcast partners CBS and Fox and DirecTV allows the league to charge a premium price by limiting distribution, she said. CBS and Fox are not part of the litigation. DirecTV, which was named as a defendant and has denied wrongdoing, got the claims against it moved into arbitration in 2021.

“Price fixing is the supreme evil that the antitrust laws were meant to prevent,” Bonn said, adding that evidence shows the NFL and DirecTV reached “secret backroom deals” to artificially inflate the price of the service.

The league’s attorneys disputed the $450 premium price fans allegedly paid for the service, saying that with free trials and discounts taken into account, Sunday Ticket customers in 2020 paid on average about $100.

“TV products are exclusive,” Beth Wilkinson said, noting that the Olympics are only available on NBC. “If you want to watch Game of Thrones, you need to buy HBO.”

Wilkinson also pointed to deposition testimony from DirecTV leaders saying that DirecTV had “100% control” over its pricing.

Household and commercial subscribers, such as sports bars, first sued the NFL over its Sunday Ticket package about a decade ago.

They claim the league and DirecTV worked together to secure an illegal monopoly and overcharge them to watch out-of-town Sunday games that local CBS and Fox channels don’t broadcast.

Judge Philip S. Gutierrez of the US District Court for the Central District of California ruled in January
that the case could go to trial, saying plaintiffs had enough evidence alleging that the league and its member clubs agreed to give the NFL full control over telecasting rights.

The jury will decide if the alleged agreements unreasonably restrain trade and whether the NFL and member clubs need to work as one entity to produce the telecasts.

Susman Godfrey LLP, Hausfeld LLP, and Langer Grogan & Diver PC are among the firms representing the plaintiffs. Wilkinson Stekloff LLP and Covington & Burling LLP are among the firms representing the league.

The case is In Re National Football League’s Sunday Ticket Antitrust Litigation, C.D. Cal., No. 2:15-ml-02668, 6/6/24.