NFL teams sell their television rights together, not one by one. Congress allowed that in 1961, when the Sports Broadcasting Act exempted pooled broadcast deals from antitrust law.

Sunday Ticket, the package of every out-of-market Sunday afternoon game, launched in 1994. For almost three decades the only way to buy it was through DirecTV satellite service.

1. 1961Teams pool their TV rights, and Congress passes the Sports Broadcasting Act
2. 1994Sunday Ticket launches, sold only through DirecTV
3. 2015A new DirecTV deal starts, reported at $1.5 billion a year for eight years
4. 2022The last season of the DirecTV era
5. 2023YouTube takes over the package on a seven-year deal

Homes paid a list price of about $200 to nearly $400 a season. Bars and restaurants paid from a few thousand dollars to more than $100,000, depending on their size.

In 2015, The Mucky Duck, a bar in San Francisco owned by Ninth Inning Inc., sued the league and its teams. Home subscribers joined the case, which became a class action.

The claim was simple to state: by selling every out-of-market game through one distributor, at one high price, the league and its teams cut competition and overcharged fans.

1. 2015The Mucky Duck and others file suit
2. 2017A federal judge dismisses the case
3. 2019The Ninth Circuit revives it
4. 2020The Supreme Court declines to hear the league's appeal
5. June 2024Trial in Los Angeles, with Roger Goodell among the witnesses

The league argued the 1961 law protected its pooled deals. The 2019 appeals ruling said the exemption covers free over-the-air broadcasts, not a paid satellite package.

After a trial of about three weeks in downtown Los Angeles, the jury found for the fans and the bars in June 2024.

Jury damages, in millions of dollars

The exact residential figure was $4,610,331,671.74. Antitrust damages are tripled by law, which is why the total exposure was put at more than $14 billion.

The residential award works out to exactly $191.26 for each of the 24.1 million subscriptions.

That is the 2018-19 list price of the package, $294, minus the $102.74 that the average subscriber actually paid.

Per residential subscription, in dollars

The fans’ experts had offered their own models. One, Daniel Rascher, compared the NFL with how college football is sold. Another, Douglas Zona, estimated that adding just one more distributor would have cut the price by 49.7%, and that a model without the league’s restrictions would have been 24.6% cheaper.

Douglas Zona's estimated overcharge, in millions of dollars

In August 2024, Judge Philip Gutierrez set the verdict aside. He ruled that the experts’ damages models were unreliable and that the jury’s number did not follow from the evidence. He has since retired.

The fans appealed. The Ninth Circuit heard the case in San Francisco on March 9, 2026, before Judges Holly A. Thomas, Anthony D. Johnstone and Joan H. Lefkow.

The 64-page opinion said the trial judge should have let the jury weigh the experts’ work. It sent the case back to Los Angeles for a new trial on damages only.

The case covers subscriptions from June 2011 to February 2023, the DirecTV years. Since 2023, Sunday Ticket has been sold by YouTube, on a deal reported at a little over $2 billion a year.

The streaming version is not cheap either. In its first season it cost $349 for YouTube TV members, or $389 with RedZone.

The league said it was disappointed by a case that “has been ongoing now for over 11 years” and said it would consider seeking further review.