The National Football League is back on the hook for potentially billions of dollars after a federal appeals court reinstated a jury’s antitrust verdict Friday over its “Sunday Ticket” subscription package, reversing a major legal victory for the league.
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a federal judge wrongly overturned the jury’s finding that the NFL violated antitrust law through its out-of-market game package. However, the court upheld the decision to throw out the original $4.7 billion damages award, setting up a new trial to determine how much the league must pay.
The ruling leaves the NFL facing a potentially enormous payout while preserving the jury’s conclusion that its television distribution arrangements harmed consumers. The size of any damages award remains unresolved, extending a legal battle that has challenged how the league packages and sells its games.
The lawsuit, which dates back to 2015, covers roughly 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 bars, restaurants and other businesses that purchased “Sunday Ticket” through DirecTV. The plaintiffs argued that the NFL restricted competition by bundling out-of-market games into an expensive subscription package rather than allowing fans to purchase access to individual teams.
A Los Angeles jury awarded approximately $4.7 billion in June 2024, a figure that could have exceeded $14 billion under federal antitrust law, which allows damages to be tripled. U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez later overturned the verdict after finding that the expert testimony supporting the subscribers’ claims was inadmissible.
Friday’s appeals court ruling found that Gutierrez went too far in rejecting the testimony, concluding that questions about its credibility should have been left to the jury. However, the three-judge panel agreed that the jury had improperly calculated damages and that a new trial was warranted.
In a statement Friday, the NFL said it was “disappointed” by the decision and defended its media distribution strategy as “by far the most fan-friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment.” The league said it was considering seeking further appellate review.
“Sunday Ticket,” which DirecTV distributed for nearly three decades, moved to YouTube in 2023 under a seven-year agreement with Google reportedly worth $14 billion. The current deal is not directly at issue in the lawsuit, which covers the package’s earlier years on DirecTV.
