One of three resolutions likely awaits the NFL Sunday Ticket lawsuit.
The boring option—a legal victory for the NFL. Last week, a jury ruled that the league acted as an illegal monopoly by pooling individual teams’ out-of-market media rights and as a result, fans (as well as bars) faced limited access at higher prices.
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But as soon as July 31, the presiding judge, Philip Gutierrez, could vacate that verdict or modify the decision to allow the league to continue business as usual. If the NFL comes up short before Gutierrez, the league can and will appeal and ask for a stay, which if granted would mean potential payments and changes would be tabled as the case moves up the legal ladder, possibly landing in front of the Supreme Court.
The hard-to-imagine scenario—congressional intervention. The NFL’s TV strategy has long brought legal scrutiny. After the NFL’s first attempt to sign a league-level deal with CBS was blocked by a judge on anti-competitive grounds, then-commissioner Pete Rozelle secured Congress’ support in the form of the 1961 Sports Broadcasting Act (SBA). The law allowed the NFL and other pro leagues to sell their entire TV rights as a package provided the broadcasts were over-the-air (rather than via yet-to-be-invented satellite subscriptions or paid cable).
Jurors seemed to dismiss the NFL’s defense via the SBA this time around. The SBA only relates to over-the-air broadcasts on channels like CBS and FOX, not distribution via satellite (DirecTV) or the internet (YouTube), though league representatives argued that Sunday Ticket stemmed from those traditional deals in critical ways.
In theory, legislators could update the SBA to include those modern methods. But I don’t foresee current commissioner Roger Goodell betting on bipartisan agreement in today’s D.C. if there’s another option (despite his family history). Not to mention that leagues’ existing antitrust exemption status has already come under…
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