Jerry Jones is scheduled to testify in court this week, possibly as early as Monday.
The Cowboys owner’s appearance on the stand in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles is part of a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit brought against the NFL regarding the pricing of the popular Sunday Ticket package, which airs out-of-market games for fans who subscribe to the service, with plans currently starting at $349 per year.
League Commissioner Roger Goodell was also scheduled to testify on Monday. NFL Chief Media and Business Officer Brian Rolapp has already appeared, per the Sports Business Journal, and a deposition from Patriots owner Robert Kraft has been played for the jury in the case.
Jones is said to be on the schedule for early this week.
Plaintiffs in the case, which dates back to 2015, have claimed that by forcing Sunday Ticket customers to purchase (previously through DirecTV; now through YouTube TV) an entire NFL season’s worth of games, the league is in violation of antitrust laws. They are seeking $7 billion in damages in the class-action suit.
The NFL has denied any wrongdoing.
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Customers for years have asked that they be allowed to purchase one team’s schedule of games or subscribe on a week-to-week or even game-by-game basis for a lower price point. Some, including ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio on Monday’s edition of the Pat McAfee Show, have suggested that the league has purposely kept the Sunday Ticket price inflated (ensuring a smaller overall number of customers) to help drive viewers instead to local affiliates of CBS and Fox, their major network partners.
Florio says that evidence already introduced in the case “supports the notion that the league preferred fewer subscribers at a high price, and that the league did not want (for example) ESPN to offer the package for $70 per year or to make a per-team option available.”
"It seems like nobody is paying attention to this & this is a case that goes back to 2015..
Roger Goodell is testifying & it challenges the way that the NFL sells the Sunday Ticket package"@ProFootballTalk #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/su3uysyG93
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) June 17, 2024
“However this plays out,” Florio told McAfee, “it could force the NFL to really change the way the games are made available to consumers, and that’s a win for all of us.”
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