NFL Socked With $4.7 Billion Verdict in Sunday Ticket Case, League to Appeal Decision

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor A federal jury in L.A. ordered the NFL to pay aggrieved sports fans a total of $4.7 billion after finding the league conspired with DirecTV to increase the price of the exclusive Sunday Ticket games package.

The class-action lawsuit was filed in TKTK on behalf of more than 2.4 million residential subscribers and more than 48,000 restaurants, bars and other commercial establishments that purchased Sunday Ticket when it was still with DirecTV.

The jury awarded consumers damages of $4.7 billion and the bars and restaurant owners were awarded $96 million. The NFL plans to appeal the verdict. “We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” an NFL rep said in a statement, “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.