Subscribers say the NFL and its clubs pooled out-of-market broadcast rights and priced Sunday Ticket high to protect CBS and Fox local ratings. A jury awarded $4.7B in June 2024, which would treble to $14.1B. In August 2024, the trial judge tossed the award on expert-evidence grounds but left the liability finding intact. The class appealed.
LATEST DEVELOPMENT · SEP 8, 2026
The Ninth Circuit heard argument in March 2026 and signalled skepticism of the NFL’s win. As of September 2026, no decision has issued. Sportico flagged on 8 September 2026 that a ruling is imminent as the season begins.
BACKGROUND
The litigation began in 2015 when residential and commercial subscribers to DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket package sued the NFL, its 32 member clubs, and DirecTV, alleging the league unlawfully pooled its teams’ out-of-market broadcast rights and sold them exclusively through a high-priced satellite package to protect the value of CBS and Fox’s over-the-air broadcasts. The district court dismissed the case in 2017, but the Ninth Circuit revived the Sherman Act claims in 2019, sending the case back for further proceedings.
On remand, Judge Philip Gutierrez certified two classes in February 2023, covering roughly 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 commercial establishments that bought Sunday Ticket between 2011 and 2023. A three-week jury trial in Los Angeles in June 2024 ended with the jury finding the NFL liable and awarding $4.7B in damages, which would have trebled to roughly $14.1B under antitrust law. Weeks later, in August 2024, Gutierrez threw out the verdict on judgment as a matter of law, ruling that the plaintiffs’ damages experts had relied on unreliable, speculative models, even as he left intact the jury’s underlying liability finding against the league.
The class appealed to the Ninth Circuit, which heard oral argument in March 2026. Reporting from that argument suggested the panel was skeptical of the district court’s decision to grant the NFL full victory, raising the prospect the verdict, or at least the liability finding, could be revived. As of mid-September 2026, no appellate decision had issued, though commentators expected a ruling soon after the start of the NFL season.
The case is widely described as the largest antitrust jury verdict ever returned in the United States, and it tests how far the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 protects the NFL’s league-wide media rights deals from antitrust scrutiny. A reversal reinstating the verdict, or ordering a new trial on damages, would have major implications for how American sports leagues package and sell out-of-market broadcast rights.
TIMELINE
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SEP 8, 2026OTHERSportico reports ruling appears imminentWith no Ninth Circuit decision yet issued as the new NFL season began, Sportico reported that a ruling on the appeal appeared imminent.
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MAR 2026HEARINGNinth Circuit hears oral argumentA three-judge Ninth Circuit panel heard argument on the appeal and reportedly signaled skepticism toward the district court’s decision to grant the NFL full judgment as a matter of law.
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AUG 1, 2024JUDGMENTJudge Gutierrez vacates verdict, rules for NFLJudge Gutierrez granted the NFL’s motion for judgment as a matter of law, finding the plaintiffs’ damages experts relied on guesswork and speculation, and wiped out the $4.7B award without ordering a retrial, while leaving the jury’s liability finding undisturbed.
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JUN 27, 2024JUDGMENTJury awards $4.7B, finds NFL liableThe jury found the NFL and its clubs violated antitrust law by conspiring to inflate the price of out-of-market broadcasts and awarded roughly $4.7B in damages, an amount that would treble to about $14.1B.
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JUN 5, 2024HEARINGJury trial begins in Los AngelesA three-week jury trial opened before Judge Gutierrez, with Susman Godfrey representing the class and Wilkinson Stekloff leading the NFL’s defense.
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2024APPEALClass appeals to the Ninth CircuitThe plaintiff class appealed Judge Gutierrez’s post-trial ruling to the Ninth Circuit, docketed as No. 24-5493, while sports economists filed amicus support through Berger Montague.
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FEB 9, 2023PROCEDURALClass action certifiedJudge Gutierrez certified two classes, one of roughly 2.4 million residential subscribers and one of about 48,000 commercial establishments that purchased Sunday Ticket from 2011 to 2023.
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AUG 13, 2019APPEALNinth Circuit reverses dismissal, reinstates Sherman Act claimsA Ninth Circuit panel reversed the district court’s dismissal and held the complaint stated claims under Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, sending the case back for further proceedings.
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2017PROCEDURALDistrict court dismisses the complaintThe district court initially dismissed the subscribers’ antitrust claims.
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2015FILINGSubscriber suits filed and consolidated into MDLDirecTV Sunday Ticket subscribers filed antitrust suits against the NFL, its 32 clubs, and DirecTV, later consolidated as In re National Football League’s Sunday Ticket Antitrust Litigation before Judge Philip Gutierrez in the Central District of California.