Jury orders NFL to pay nearly $4.8 billion in 'Sunday Ticket' case for violating antitrust laws

[RonnieT24]

That may have been because it was on local channels which would violate their broadcast agreement

I won't claim to understand broadcast agreements and what not but I seriously could not tell the difference between what I was seeing on channel 711 vs channel 11. I assume there was SOME local advertising that didn't make it to the satellite channels maybe!?!? I dunno.. I just know I hated it.

 

[gtb1943]

They will put up a bond that costs way less. The NFL has plenty of money and I think a great chance to win on appeal. A loss would devastate every sport and destroy their biggest revenue source while taking away any ability for fans to have more options to watch games not in their market. This will go all the way to the Supreme Court if needed because this ruling changing all sports broadcasting abilities

maybe maybe not
I had read that once the judge reaches the decision on the final amount, that amount had to be put in an account pending appeal
I guess it depends on how its done
I have learned not to think anything is impossible once it gets to court

 

[conner01]

maybe maybe not
I had read that once the judge reaches the decision on the final amount, that amount had to be put in an account pending appeal
I guess it depends on how its done
I have learned not to think anything is impossible once it gets to court

Most cases it’s just a bond that guarantees payment if you loose on appeal. The nfl is extremely financially sound so no way any court is forcing them to put up a cash bond

 

[conner01]

I won't claim to understand broadcast agreements and what not but I seriously could not tell the difference between what I was seeing on channel 711 vs channel 11. I assume there was SOME local advertising that didn't make it to the satellite channels maybe!?!? I dunno.. I just know I hated it.

Probably was no difference. A game is telecast by the network and then broadcast can be other networks. CBS did the SB but it was broadcast on multiple channels but same telecast

 

[conner01]

It wont affect the cap even if they had to pay out the entire lump sum right now because the cap is based on league revenue and not profits. This ruling will do little to affect league revenue so the cap will remain unaffected.

Good point on not hitting cap now though could in future if they can’t sell the pkg exclusively to a signal buyer

 

[gtb1943]

Most cases it’s just a bond that guarantees payment if you loose on appeal. The nfl is extremely financially sound so no way any court is forcing them to put up a cash bond

I think it depends on the judge; when Microsoft lost its case years ago they were forced to pony it all up right away.

 

[erod]

The League, which is officially 32 independent businesses, does not have the right to do what they did. Comparing them to Apple is a poor analogy because Apple is one single business.

You can argue no one was forced to buy it (and you'd be correct) but that doesn't matter. The courts didn't "invent" anything here. The law forbids independent businesses from doing what these 32 businesses did.

That would only make sense if the teams were suing the league for rights to their own broadcasting. How is this different than NBC having sole rights to broadcast the Super Bowl?

The NFL picks and chooses which games will go to what market already, and it had this other option to have access to all games through a single option.

What will come of this will be pay-per-view for every game. It'll cost $50 for a Cowboys game because they know people will just team up and watch together at somebody's house. Or, we'll be buying seasons for given teams, or collections of game packages, etc.

This is going to make things more expensive and exclusive, not less.

 

[Ghost12]

That would only make sense if the teams were suing the league for rights to their own broadcasting. How is this different than NBC having sole rights to broadcast the Super Bowl?

The NFL picks and chooses which games will go to what market already, and it had this other option to have access to all games through a single option.

The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 allows the above. It does not allow for what the NFL did with Sunday Ticket.

What will come of this will be pay-per-view for every game. It'll cost $50 for a Cowboys game because they know people will just team up and watch together at somebody's house. Or, we'll be buying seasons for given teams, or collections of game packages, etc.

This is going to make things more expensive and exclusive, not less.

Maybe, maybe not. We know several networks wanted to offer lower prices and the NFL forbade it. If the NFL loses this case (which it has) and loses their appeal and then loses the appeal after that, they will not have the authority to tell the networks what they can and can't do.

 

[erod]

The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 allows the above. It does not allow for what the NFL did with Sunday Ticket.

Maybe, maybe not. We know several networks wanted to offer lower prices and the NFL forbade it. If the NFL loses this case (which it has) and loses their appeal and then loses the appeal after that, they will not have the authority to tell the networks what they can and can't do.

If they lose all the appeals, we'll never see another NFL game on network television again. And without the NFL, the networks are dead and buried because almost nobody sub-40 watches standard television anymore.

 

[Chasing6]

If they lose all the appeals, we'll never see another NFL game on network television again. And without the NFL, the networks are dead and buried because almost nobody sub-40 watches standard television anymore.

Television is having a slow death.

It is literally the only thing you can buy that has not been impacted by inflation.

 

[conner01]

I think it depends on the judge; when Microsoft lost its case years ago they were forced to pony it all up right away.

not really. They never paid anything till they reached a settlement. The ruling was appealed and partially overturned and sent back to lower court which never actually heard the case after that since they reached a settlement. But that was a totally different type of anti trust case that even Microsoft knew they would lose. This is a novel case that I don’t see being upheld on appeal. But either way it’s standard to post an appeal bond