Supreme Court Won't Hear NFL, DirecTV Appeal -- Update
November 02 2020 - 10:25AM
Dow Jones News
By Brent Kendall
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court turned away an appeal by the
National Football League and AT&T Inc.'s DirecTV subsidiary
that sought dismissal of an antitrust lawsuit challenging their
exclusive Sunday Ticket package of football telecasts.
The court declined on Monday to review an appeals court decision
from last year that allowed commercial and residential subscribers
of Sunday Ticket to proceed with their case.
The league and the pay-TV service were seeking to have the case
thrown out before a trial.
The NFL makes some of its games available each week through free
over-the-air broadcasts, but for U.S. consumers who want access to
nearly all game telecasts -- or who want all the games of a
specific team outside their local market -- the DirecTV package is
the only option.
Absent that exclusive deal, consumers would have more options
for NFL broadcasts at lower prices, the lawsuit alleges.
The NFL says the league and its teams must coordinate to
distribute game telecasts, and it argues the DirecTV partnership
has been good for consumers and has increased viewership.
A federal trial judge threw out the lawsuit in 2017, but the
Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived it last year.
Write to Brent Kendall at brent.kendall@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 02, 2020 10:10 ET (15:10 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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