Tag: Sunday ticket

NFL Sunday Ticket pricing revealed

The NFL Sunday Ticket package on YouTube will set you back some hundreds

The NFL Sunday Ticket package is up on YouTube. And you may wince when you see what the cost is.

To sign up for Sunday Ticket, the price is $679.99. Throw in NFL Red Zone and the bundle will cost you $739.99.

That will put a major dent in most wallets.

Jones, NFL owners escape Sunday Ticket $4.7B refund as judge throws out award

NFL teams, including Jerry Jones, breathed a deep sigh of relief on Thursday. Fans wanting to have the opportunity to watch all their teams games for less… not so much. | From @KDDrummondNFL

In the litigious United States of America, judgements are not final. At least not right away.

The NFL was sued, and lost, a case claiming that they overcharged customers for the DirecTV Sunday Ticket package. Earlier this summer, a jury awarded the plaintiffs of the anti-trust class action suit $4.7 billion in damages. Judge Phillip Gutierrez overtuned the award on Thursday, despite agreeing that the plaintiffs proved the merit of the accusation.

The award would’ve actually have been tripled, to a whopping $14.1 billion, if upheld. Now, the class-action suit will have to appeal the judge’s verdict in order to bring relief back to the consumer.

The NFL put out a statement thanking the judge for the decision in their favor.

“We are grateful for today’s ruling in the Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the league said in a statement. “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.” via ProFootball Talk

Although the statement was issued, there’s certainly another round or two possible in the court system.

The case had previously been thrown out before being reinstated by the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

Sunday Ticket, only available on satellite provider DirecTV up until the contract was moved to Youtube TV recently, allowed customers to by the entire slate of NFL games for a specific season. There was no a la carte menu available.

From the order: “Despite finding Dr. Rascher’s and Dr. Zona’s opinions unreliable, the Court does not find that it would be unreasonable for a juror to find that there was a conspiracy that unreasonably restrained trade. . . . There was evidence in the record—even without the testimonies of Dr. Rascher and Dr. Zona—to support a reasonable jury’s finding of an unreasonable restraint of trade at each step of the rule of reason. . . . Given a reasonable jury could find that there were anticompetitive effects, that Defendants’ procompetitive justifications were pretextual or unrelated to the restraints, and/or that there were less-restrictive alternatives based on the record, judgment as a matter of law is inappropriate on these grounds.”

In other words, the judge upheld the finding that Sunday Ticket, as constructed, violates federal antitrust laws. – PFT

Report: Jerry Jones, Roger Goodell scheduled to testify in Sunday Ticket lawsuit

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys owner and NFL commissioner are among those taking the stand in a $7B lawsuit that could change how football fans watch games.

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.”

“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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NFL announces new home for Sunday Ticket

The NFL has announced a new home for Sunday Ticket, which had been on DirecTV since 1994.

The NFL has announced a new home for Sunday Ticket, which had been on DirecTV since 1994.

This morning Tom Pelissero at NFL Network broke the news on Twitter: the league has agreed to an exclusive multi-year deal with Google to stream Sunday Ticket games on Youtube TV starting in the 2023 season.

Commissioner Roger Goodell had this to say about the deal, per the league website:

“We’re excited to bring NFL Sunday Ticket to YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels and usher in a new era of how fans across the United States watch and follow the NFL. For a number of years we have been focused on increased digital distribution of our games and this partnership is yet another example of us looking towards the future and building the next generation of NFL fans.”

The league also put out a lengthy press release.

DirecTV has angered many fans due to service interruptions, particularly at the start of this season.

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