NFL Sunday Ticket antitrust

[emby]

Bottom post of the previous page:

The ongoing NFL Sunday Ticket trial in Los Angeles may be drawing closer to a conclusion entering its fourth week, as the league continues its efforts to fend off an antitrust lawsuit that could ultimately cost $21 billion and, perhaps more important, put a major wrench in a longtime, lucrative media-rights strategy.

Closing statements could come this week, with the last scheduled witness, an economist from Stanford University, set to finish his testimony Monday. Other witnesses who have taken the stand include NFL commissioner Roger Goodell (above) and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Patriots owner Robert Kraft was among those to give a deposition.

Trial Twists and Turns
For those getting caught up on the situation, here are some of the major storylines that Front Office Sports has been following:

The NFL wouldn’t let ESPN, which wanted to bid for Sunday Ticket, drastically reduce the price of the package.

Goodell took a shot at the quality of NFL Network game broadcasts.

The league entered the trial with an uphill battle.

Testimony from key figures like Goodell and Jones showed the gravity of the situation.

U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez, who is overseeing the case, last week said he was upset with how the plaintiffs have handled the lawsuit, which in his mind has become too complicated.

“This case has gone in a direction it shouldn’t have gone,” Gutierrez said. Should the case go to a jury verdict, and the NFL loses, the league will still be able to appeal all the way up to the Supreme Court, if it chooses to do so.

Where Did This Begin?
The Sunday Ticket lawsuit was originally brought forward by a pub in San Francisco called Mucky Duck in 2015. The bar felt it was being taken advantage of by the league when purchasing the out-of-market package of games. But its owner, Jason Baker, has not testified in the case. Now, it is a class action suit, which can be viewed here, and includes many other restaurant owners and individual citizens as plaintiffs.

So little info coming out of this.

[emby]

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/404 ... cket-trial

LOS ANGELES -- The jury in the class-action lawsuit filed by "Sunday Ticket" subscribers against the NFL is expected to begin deliberations on Wednesday after both sides wrapped up their cases on Monday.

U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez will have a conference with attorneys for both sides Tuesday morning to determine final jury instructions. Gutierrez could also hear a motion from the NFL on Tuesday afternoon to grant judgment as a matter of law to the league because the plaintiffs did not provide enough evidence.

Gutierrez will then give final instructions to the jury of five men and three women Wednesday morning before final arguments begin. Each side will get 1 hour, 10 minutes to make their statements with the plaintiffs getting an additional 20 minutes for rebuttal.

The NFL's final witness was Stanford economics professor B. Douglas Bernheim, whose testimony began last Thursday and wrapped up Monday morning.

Bernheim reiterated the league's position that selling out-of-market Sunday afternoon games on Fox and CBS to DirecTV from 1994 to 2022 and now Google YouTube TV benefits the fan and creates level competition on the playing field.

Harvard professor Einer Elhauge, a rebuttal witness for the plaintiffs, contended there were no links between the restraints the league put in to make "Sunday Ticket" a premium package and creating competitive balance.

Elhauge also testified that the approximately $62.5 million each team gets per year from "Sunday Ticket" would not cause massive ramifications to the league's salary cap or a team's operating budget.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones testified last week that if he was able to sell his out-of-market rights, he would not be in favor of a salary cap.

The class action, which covers 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses who paid for the package of out-of-market games from the 2011 through 2022 seasons, claims the league broke antitrust laws by selling its package of Sunday games aired on CBS and Fox at an inflated price. The subscribers also say the league restricted competition by offering "Sunday Ticket" only on a satellite provider.

The NFL maintains it has the right to sell "Sunday Ticket" under its antitrust exemption for broadcasting. The plaintiffs say that only covers over-the-air broadcasts and not pay TV.

If the NFL is found liable, a jury could award $7 billion in damages, but that number could balloon to $21 billion because antitrust cases can triple damages.

The lawsuit was originally filed in 2015 by the Mucky Duck sports bar in San Francisco, but was dismissed in 2017. Two years later, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over California and eight other states, reinstated the case. Gutierrez ruled last year the case could proceed as a class action.

Whatever the decision ends up being, the losing side is expected to appeal to the 9th Circuit and then possibly the Supreme Court.

That's a pretty pro-NFL take on the case coming from ESPN. Not exactly getting to the bottom of this are they?

[emby]

Jury ruled against the league.

[kaimaru]

Jury ruled against the league.

It was clearly a violation. Fuck the NFL

[The Outsider]

Gotta love it. I've always though Sunday Ticket was some bullshit for how expensive it is.

[emby]

I had Sunday ticket for ten years. Paid full price for it for ten years.

Send the check.

[emby]

aaaaaand they overturned it.

[The Outsider]

But muh free market capitalism!!!!