The $4.7 billion verdict in the NFL Sunday Ticket trial against the league stunned everyone. Now, the judge believes the jurors ruled incorrectly and the verdict is likely to be overturned.
U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez didn’t issue a ruling during the hearing in downtown Los Angeles on the NFL’s motion for judgment as a matter of law or for a new trial. However, he agreed with the league that the jury’s damages award wasn’t supported by the evidence.
The jury calculated the precise amount of damages to be $4,707,259,944.62 using a theory that had never been presented during the trial, the judge said.
“There’s no doubt about what they did,” Gutierrez said. “They didn’t follow the instructions.”
In short, the complication arose from the mathematics the jury used in computing the amount of damages.
The jury’s amount did not conform to the college football model ($7.01 billion) by Daniel Rascher, an economist at the University of San Francisco, or the multiple-distributor model ($3.48 billion) by John Zona, who was an expert witness in the case.
Instead, the jury used the 2021 list price of about $294 and subtracted $102.74, the average price actually paid by residential “Sunday Ticket” subscribers. The jury then used $191.26, which it considered as the “overcharge,” and multiplied that by the number of subscribers to come up with the damages amount.
“Today we asked the district court to set aside the jury’s verdict in this case, which is contrary to the law and unsupported by the evidence presented at trial.” an NFL statement read. “The NFL’s media distribution model is the most fan friendly in sports, with all games broadcast locally on free over-the-air television in addition to many other choices available to fans who want even more access to NFL content. We will continue to pursue all avenues in defense of the claims brought in this case.”
