[Elvis]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... ay-ticket/

NFL, DirecTV sued over Sunday Ticket

Posted by Mike Florio on June 19, 2015, 10:24 AM EDT

How quickly will DirecTV’s settlement of a lawsuit challenging the NHL out-of-market package that prevents the purchase of one team’s games spawn a similar attack on DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket package?

If the over/under was a week and you took the under, congratulations.

A class action attacking the Sunday Ticket package was filed Wednesday in California. PFT has obtained a copy of the complaint filed by Thomas Abrahamian against the NFL, DirecTV, and related defendants.

The lawsuit accuses the NFL and DirecTV of violating federal antitrust laws by requiring consumers to purchase all Sunday afternoon out-of-market games, even if the customer wants to see the out-of-market games for one team only. Over the years, the Sunday Ticket package has been marketed from time to time specifically to those consumers.

“The League and DirecTV offer NFL Sunday Ticket only as all-or-nothing,” the complaint alleges at paragraph 36. “Purchasers of NFL Sunday Ticket must buy all out-of-market games for all teams even if they are only interested in watching the games of a particular team. Likewise, consumers must buy the complete season of games and may not purchase individual games.”

The NFL surely will argue that the broadcast antitrust exemption which allows games of separate teams to be bundled and sold to the networks allows that same bundling to occur when selling the games to consumers. The league faced a similar lawsuit in 1997, attacking not the inability to purchase games involving one specific team but the inability to purchase the package one Sunday at a time. Settled in 2001, the agreement allowed consumers for a limited time to buy NFL Sunday Ticket on any given Sunday.

The question in this case is whether the lawyers will push the litigation through to a conclusion, or whether they’ll accept a proposal that pays them handsomely for their limited efforts, gives the class members a short-term cookie for their trouble, and ultimately doesn’t effect meaningful change.

Whatever the law ultimately requires, here’s hoping that this lawsuit goes to the end, so that if consumers are illegally being deprived of the ability to purchase out-of-market games on a team-by-team basis, they’ll have that right going forward. Or, alternatively, if the NFL and DirecTV are complying with the law, they’ll be insulated from future attacks.

[Hacksaw]

I'd have had a hard time staying a Rams fan if not for NFL ticket. Other than the GSOT years, the Rams are never in the Network lineup.
I'm sure either way the NFL and D-TV will make it works for them. And I'd like the choice to only buy Rams games. I seldom watch the other games, but it nice knowing I can.

[moklerman]

I don't know what the logistics would entail, but I can't imagine it'd be any real trouble to just make all 14(at most) Sunday Ticket games PPV each week. That's what bugs me about any of these league packages is that blackout rules still apply.

To that end, I'm not sure how the market guidelines are defined but with the MLB extra innings package, I still can't get Dodgers games since DirecTV doesn't have a contract with TWC. But if I lived anywhere else besides the LA area, I could watch the games. Seems unfair to me.

[OldSchool]

I hope in the suit they break the Direct TV monopoly on this package. Then again I heard UVerse was buying them so maybe I'll be able to get it that way.

[moklerman]

While a monopoly never seems like a good idea, I'm not sure breaking it all up is the right thing either. Trying to imagine the consequences of such a thing, what if all the regional broadcast powerhouses got rights to certain teams? Would I have to sign up for the YES network to get Jets games? Look at the mess on the west coast with the Pac-12, Lakers and Dodgers.

I don't know, I can see there are shortcomings with DirecTV but I don't know if they are so bad that it warrants a change. I'll forever give thanks to DirecTV for allowing me to get all the games for the past 10+ years. I still remember being stuck with the local feed and it wasn't fun.