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The NFL suffered a massive legal blow Thursday in a U.S. District Court as it was ruled that the NFL violated antitrust laws in distributing out-of-market Sunday afternoon games through a premium subscription service. The jury awarded more than $4.7 billion in damages.

Sunday Ticket was a paid offering for consumers of out-of-market games via DirecTV from 1994 through 2022 before signing a massive seven-year deal with YouTube TV where the offering currently exists.

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The NFL was quick to state that it will appeal the verdict saying, “We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit. We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which includes all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating teams and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket, and NFL+, is by far the most fan-friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment,” the league said.

“We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit. We thank the jury for their time and service and for the guidance and oversight from Judge Philip Gutierrez throughout the trial.”

The lawsuit covered 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses that paid for the package of out-of-market games from the 2011 through 2022 seasons on DirecTV. The lawsuit claimed the league broke antitrust laws by selling its package of Sunday games at an inflated price and restricted competition by offering “Sunday Ticket” only on a satellite provider.

The league maintained it has the right to sell “Sunday Ticket” under its antitrust exemption for broadcasting. The plaintiffs argued that the exemption covers only over-the-air broadcasts and not pay TV.

Post-trial motions will be heard on July 31, including one to set aside the verdict. If the verdict isn’t set aside, the NFL will appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court.