Many in the media have been complacent, incoherent and/or compromised when it comes to coverage (or lack thereof) of the Sunday Ticket trial, its verdict and its impact. Beyond the question of whether more than $14 billion will be paid to more than 2.4 million members of the national class is the reality of the situation.
The reality is that for 30 years, the NFL has been screwing consumers.
The league may not like to see things that way, but that’s exactly what happened. The NFL demanded that Sunday Ticket be overpriced to protect the billions it receives from networks that make games available through local TV affiliates on Sunday afternoons.
There are two aspects of the consumer group that have been affected by these practices. Represented in the class are those who were forced to pay more than they should for the Sunday Ticket, thanks to the anti-competitive behavior reflected in the jury’s verdict. Not represented are the people who wanted the Sunday Ticket but didn’t have the money to buy it.
They were not harmed in a legal sense because they did not buy the Sunday Ticket. But if it was dramatically cheaper, or if there was a team option available, they would have bought it.
Trial evidence included a document showing that ESPN wanted to charge just $70 for the entire Sunday Ticket package and that it wanted to allow consumers to buy one team’s games at a time. The NFL said no.
The only people who have not been affected by Sunday Ticket pricing fraud are those who would never have purchased the Sunday Ticket at any price, probably because they live in the market where their favorite team plays. Millions don’t. To watch the games they wanted on Sunday afternoons, they either had to pay a surcharge designed to protect CBS and Fox’s ratings or they simply said, “Screw it, I’ll watch the games on my local channels.”
The NFL could still win the case and avoid paying more than $14 billion. Even if that happens, the question is whether the Sunday Ticket price will continue to be overpriced. The fact that so few media outlets put the matter in the terms used above makes it less likely that the NFL will be pressured to come up with a more consumer-friendly approach – since most consumers remain clueless as to how they did it. . was hampered by Sunday Ticket’s pricing structure.
Again, the NFL may not like to see the situation described so bluntly. It’s not my fault. They could have prevented this situation from coming to a head if they hadn’t rigged the price of the Sunday Ticket, which forced geographically displaced fans to choose between paying too much for something they wanted or going without it because the price was very high.
