DirecTV, NFL: Sunday NFL Ticket Has Helped, Not Hurt, Competition

The NFL Sunday Ticket has increased the number of televised NFL games, enhanced competition and helped create what even the antitrust complaint against the league and DirecTV admits is huge NFL viewership, said defendant appellees DirecTV and the NFL in a docket 17-56119 answering brief (in Pacer) filed Friday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They said the plaintiffs' challenge of the NFL/DirecTV distribution agreement and the NFL/individual teams' license agreement don't account for the Sports Broadcasting Act's protections exempting from antitrust scrutiny the NFL's licensing of its member teams' broadcast rights. The appellees also said it's well-established precedent that exclusive distributorships are presumed to be legal. They also said the existence of free over-the-air NFL broadcasts precludes exercise of market power. The appellants are challenging a lower court's dismissal last year of their complaint (see 1804020003). Appellant counsel didn't comment Monday.