NFL Asks Judge to Issue Summary Judgement in Antitrust Lawsuit Over Sunday Ticket; League Says Suit Would Hurt Fans
NFL Asks Judge to Issue Summary Judgement in Antitrust Lawsuit Over Sunday Ticket; League Says Suit Would Hurt Fans
The NFL is ready to pack up its papers and get out of the courtroom, but now it’s up to the judge. new Sportico is reporting that the league has filed a motion for summary judgment in the class-action lawsuit brought by NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers.
The case has been in federal court since 2015, but it wasn’t until February of this year that Judge Phillip Gutierrez certified it as a class-action suit. The crux of the complaint is that by limiting where fans can watch out-of-market NFL games to just one service (Sunday Ticket is exclusively available on YouTube TV starting in 2023), the league is creating a non-competitive environment so extreme that it constitutes an antitrust violation.
For its part, the NFL argues that its status as a single entity prevents it from being subject to antitrust laws for broadcasting purposes. The league says that if the lawsuit is successful, it could change the entire distribution scheme of the league, and some teams could sell their rights to a cable-exclusive channel instead of airing on broadcast channels in their local markets.
The league does have one point, in that its games are more available on over-the-air channels than any other top sports league. NFL games air on CBS, Fox, and NBC primarily — with ABC handling a few “Monday Night Football” games this year — though cable channels like ESPN and NFL Network also have their own exclusive games as well. But if teams started selling their rights to the highest bidder both in and out-of-market, they could wind up on regional sports networks (RSNs), which would be a big step back in terms of distribution for them.
That’s a big reason why the NFL’s threat that such a possibility may become reality seems overblown. The NFL relies on the distribution it currently enjoys via broadcast channels, and it need only ask MLB commissioner Rob Manfred about the headaches involved in dealing with RSNs. Still, if the league wants to make a bigger presence for itself in the streaming world, as suggested by the fact that Peacock got an exclusive regular season and playoff game this year, it must be able to sell its 32 clubs’ broadcast rights in a single package.
That’s why fans of the league should have an eye on the lawsuit, as its outcome could bring a monumental shift in the way people watch NFL games. The case could wind up in front of the Supreme Court, but the next step is a hearing scheduled for Oct. 27 that will allow the plaintiffs to respond to the NFL’s motion for summary judgment.
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.