Nfl Tells Us Judge No Evidence Supports 'sunday Ticket' Antitrust Trial
The National Football League and its teams have asked a U.S. judge to rule that there is not enough proof to hold a multibillion-dollar.
Trial on the claim that the exclusive "Sunday Ticket" package of televised games breaks U.S. antitrust law.
Lawyers for the NFL claimed in a key pre-trial filing on Friday in a federal court in Los Angeles that residential and commercial subscribers had not shown that the NFL's licensing agreement for Sunday Ticket hurt competition.
The plaintiffs, who are asking for $6 billion in penalties, say that the NFL's business deal with DirecTV has artificially raised the price of Sunday Ticket.
Which lets people outside of the market watch Sunday afternoon games that aren't shown for free on other national broadcasters.
Before the trial, which is set to happen in February 2024, NFL lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez to give the league a summary ruling.
Lawyers for the NFL said that exclusive licensing deals are "presumptively legal.
They also said that the plaintiffs had not found "any evidence that could change a legal exclusive distribution agreement into an illegal antitrust conspiracy" after dozens of depositions and the release of hundreds of thousands of records.
The NFL and a Google unit called YouTube TV made a deal last year for YouTube TV to carry the Sunday Ticket package for home users until 2030.
The NFL has made a different deal for bars, hotels, and restaurants that want to subscribe.
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