A jury of eight has decided that the National Football League has violated federal antitrust laws with its NFL Sunday Ticket service, and as a result the Las Vegas Raiders could be left paying a hefty bill.
According to ESPN, the jury decided that the league did in fact break antitrust laws with the subscription service by selling Sunday Ticket only on DirecTV and at an inflated price.
Because of the verdict, the NFL has been ordered to pay a staggering $4.8 billion in damages, with $4.7 billion going to the residential class and another $96 million for the commercial class.
The league has said it will appeal the verdict. No damages will be paid, nor will there be any changes to the service until that process plays out to completion.
If the $4.8 billion in damages holds up, it will be spread out throughout all 32 teams. But that number has the potential to go up, as damages can be tripled under federal antitrust laws, which would amount to $14.39 billion in total and $446.9 million per team.
"We are disappointed with the jury's verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit," the league said of the decision. "We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which features all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating teams and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is by far the most fan friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment.
"We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit. We thank the jury for their time and service and for the guidance and oversight from Judge [Philip] Gutierrez throughout the trial."
Sunday Ticket has long been a point of contention among NFL fans because of its price and lack of flexibility. Assuming the NFL doesn't win its appeal, that should change.
