New appeals court ruling could end Sunday Ticket

Published October 30, 2026 03:31 PM Yes, the NFL could “deconstruct” Sunday Ticket in the next wave of broadcast deals. The smart move could be to kill it immediately.One of the strangest aspects of the NFL’s reaction to the $4.7 billion verdict in the class action attacking the pricing of Sunday Ticket was the league’s decision to continue to proceed with the same approach to the out-of-market package. The trial judge’s decision to throw out the 12-figure verdict (which would have become a 13-figure judgment) seemed to embolden the NFL in this regard, but the decision to wipe out the damages award did not erase the jury’s finding that the NFL had violated the antitrust laws.The argument against Sunday Ticket was fairly simple. The league historically required its Sunday Ticket partner to impose a charge that was high enough to prompt many consumers who would have wanted to watch out-of-market games to settle for the in-market options provided by CBS and Fox.The lengthy trial transcript (which we obtained and read not long after the verdict was entered) is replete with evidence of the NFL walking a tightrope between maximizing the value of the CBS/Fox packages and the Sunday Ticket offering. Multiple witnesses confirmed that CBS and Fox had open contempt for the Sunday Ticket package, and that the pricing was specifically designed to mollify the networks that were paying enormous fees for the ability to broadcast games in any given market.But the Sunday Ticket package endures, with ongoing exposure to fresh claims covering the period of time not encompassed by the pending class action. The violation, frankly, continues for each and every Sunday of the football season. It’s somewhat surprising that the NFL has yet to be enjoined from continuing with the lingering antitrust violation. The only recourse is for additional plaintiffs in additional class actions to seek reimbursement for the exorbitant prices they have been charged in order to protect the NFL’s relationship with CBS and Fox.It seems inevitable that the NFL will pull the plug on the Sunday Ticket package, either as a result of a court order or to stop the financial bleeding. The current deal with YouTube runs through 2029. Come 2030 (if not sooner), Sunday Ticket could be replaced with another method of making out-of-market games available to consumers.The new approach will definitely be cheaper. It possibly could result in the out-of-market Sunday afternoon games being available on a variety of cable channels and/or streamers, with the in-market games still carried by CBS and Fox.Thus, while today’s development in federal appeals court represents very bad news for the league, the end result could be very good news for consumers.