DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Possibly good news for sunday ticket subscribers

PFT

Settlement of NHL lawsuit could spark renewed attack on Sunday Ticket

Posted by Mike Florio on June 12, 2015, 11:26 AM EDT
Unknown
Since the NFL and DirecTV unveiled the Sunday Ticket Package in 1994, fans who want to see the Sunday afternoon games of one specific out-of-market team have complained about having to buy all Sunday afternoon out-of-market games. They may now have a pathway for making that argument in court.

Via Reuters, the settlement of a class-action lawsuit challenging DirecTV’s NHL package has resulted in a commitment to allow fans to buy games featuring only one team for the next five years. The Internet-based package will cost at least 20 percent less than the bundled package.

A similar lawsuit is still pending against Major League Baseball.

In 2001, a class action filed against DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket package resulted in a settlement that included the ability to purchase the games one Sunday at a time, from the last four weeks of the 2001 season through at least the 2002 season. The Sunday Ticket package otherwise has been sold for the last two decades as an all-teams, every-Sunday proposition.

While the practice of forcing consumers to buy all games instead of some games appears to be a clear violation of the antitrust laws, the sports leagues believe that the broadcast antitrust exemption, which allows TV rights to be sold by the bundle and not by the team, applies not only to the networks but also to the consumers. The settlements of these class actions, which leverage the uncertainty of the potential outcome in court to entice the lawyers to accept a large fee payment and the plaintiffs to receive a much smaller concession than they’d get through a victory, prevent the issue from ever being fully litigated.

Still, the door is now open for an ambitious group of lawyers to recruit a plaintiff or two, to file the lawsuit challenging the inability to buy the out-of-market games for only one team, to go through the motions of working up the case for a couple of years, and then to receive a multi-million-dollar fee as part of yet another settlement that never really settles the issue.

It's too bad that the package is internet based. Many people, like myself, get DirecTV because we live where there is no cable and high-speed internet available.

Still, if this is just the first step in being able to subscribe to one team's games through the satellite box, with no need for the internet, I'm all for it.

They say "at least 20% less" but I would rather it say 50% less. If you're only paying for one team, why pay near 80% of the bundled cost?

I understand a ton of subscribers would drop their bundled package to do it and that would lower DirecTVs revenue, but I'd think it would offset because all the people like me that refuse to pay for all the games would sign up for the 1-team package.

If I could have my way, I'd think it would be fair to charge 25% of the bundled rate for 1 team. Each additional team would be 5-10% more. As you approach 75%, you may as well get all of them. But at least you'd have the lower cost option of buying all AFC North teams for 40% of the bundled price.

And it's still too bad the NFL won't spread the rights of the games across all cable and satellite subscribers. I have cable through my condo assessments, it would be stupid for me to pay double for DirectTV just so I can watch the Browns (though I can get it through my PS3, but that's on one TV and I can't DVR it).