NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell Defends Sunday Ticket Pricing in Class-Action Lawsuit Testimony
The NFL continues to try and make the case that NFL Sunday Ticket was never intended for everyone, and that its high price is not an insurmountable barrier to watching games.
The NFL Sunday Ticket class-action lawsuit is proceeding apace, and the most important league official of them all has now given his thoughts on the matter. On Monday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell took to the witness stand in federal court and reiterated the league’s position that it has the best broadcast model of any sport because its games are primarily available on over-the-air (OTA) broadcast channels. He further elaborated that Sunday Ticket is a premium product not intended for all fans, and therefore is priced accordingly.
Key Details:
- Goodell reiterated that the league has no ability to dictate the price of Sunday Ticket, and was unhappy when DIRECTV offered discounts on the product.
- Fans make the ultimate choice as to whether or not they’ll opt for Sunday Ticket, and the league doesn’t compel anyone to buy it, Goodell argued.
- If the NFL loses its lawsuit, teams could be allowed to sell out-of-market rights individually, which the league is not eager to see happen.
The commissioner followed his league’s talking points perfectly in his testimony, using the same basic argument that the NFL has tried to make throughout the case. He insisted that Sunday Ticket was always intended to be a premium, additive product that not all fans would want and that it was priced accordingly to help protect CBS and Fox, both of whom were concerned that a low cost for the service would draw viewers away from linear broadcasts on Sunday afternoons.
“We have been clear throughout that it is a premium product. Not just on pricing but quality,” Goodell testified. “Fans make that choice whether they wanted it or not. I’m sure there were fans who said it was too costly.”
CNBC reports that Goodell said that the league had no control over Sunday Ticket's ultimate pricing, and that when DIRECTV owned the rights to the product it frequently offered special discounts on the service that the NFL disapproved of, but was powerless to stop.
While the league might not have been able to dictate the price of the out-of-market plan while DIRECTV owned the rights, it did have complete control over who got the rights next, and it does appear that the plan’s subscription price played into those decisions. Evidence revealed last week shows that during the negotiating process, ESPN proposed selling single-team packages of Sunday Ticket for as little as $70, which was met with disapproval from league executives. The league ultimately decided not to sell the package to ESPN, perhaps partially because of the price concerns. The NFL also opted against signing with Apple, who Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio said in a recent episode of the “Pardon My Take” podcast wanted to simply include Sunday Ticket in the price of an Apple TV+ subscription. This doesn’t show the NFL directly controlling the price of Sunday Ticket, but it does demonstrate that the league didn’t want to sell its rights to any outlet that would consider reducing the cost of a subscription substantially.
In Goodell’s testimony, he indicated that the league quickly became dissatisfied with DIRECTV’s handling of Sunday Ticket after AT&T bought the satellite company in 2015. The commissioner said that the purchase was accompanied by a marked decline in innovation and marketing for Sunday Ticket, and while the league was interested in moving on from the satellite provider far earlier, streaming technology wasn’t sufficiently advanced to shift Sunday Ticket to that medium until recently. YouTube TV acquired the rights to Sunday Ticket in late 2022.
Some legal experts believe that the NFL stands a good chance of losing the suit, though it may have a better opportunity to win on appeal. If a judgment is handed down in favor of the 2.4 million individuals and 48,000 commercial establishments who brought the class-action case, the league would see the requested damages of $7 billion tripled to $21 billion because the suit is for alleged antitrust violations. It could also have sweeping consequences for the NFL broadcasting landscape, as teams may be able to start selling their out-of-market rights individually if the league loses.
NFL Sunday Ticket
NFL Sunday Ticket is a subscription video streaming service that allows football fans to watch every live out-of-market NFL game on Sunday afternoons on YouTube or YouTube TV.