Sunday Ticket lawsuit alleges price fixing by the NFL

[Ray Stonada]

1 minute ago, JGMcD2 said:

I'm not sure on this? $449 a year to stay home and watch 17 games. 

 

That's roughly $25 a game... is the average person really spending less than that each time they go and watch the game at a bar?

 

It's probably a wash. 

 

True but only if you don't count beers and wings as having monetary value  

 

 

[Billy Claude]

11 hours ago, djp14150 said:

I feel the NFL will lose if the show the documents of price fixing ny only allowing the high cost and not lower cost items.

 

other major sports allow game access on all platforms for all games or just team specific games.  Thr NFL does not have special status to not allow this

 

With NBA League Pass you are allowed to choose games just for one team but the discount is only about 10%.  I would think very few people choose this.

 

[Kwai San]

37 minutes ago, JGMcD2 said:

I'm not sure on this? $449 a year to stay home and watch 17 games. 

 

That's roughly $25 a game... is the average person really spending less than that each time they go and watch the game at a bar?

 

It's probably a wash. 

Depends on the season and how much you feel the need to slam beers while having to drive home.  Last year in SoFlo I watched 12 games at home.  This year looks to be the same....

[nucci]

50 minutes ago, JGMcD2 said:

I'm not sure on this? $449 a year to stay home and watch 17 games. 

 

That's roughly $25 a game... is the average person really spending less than that each time they go and watch the game at a bar?

 

It's probably a wash. 

$289 for me

[stevestojan]

Tangentially related: I’ve never understood why the execs at Sunday Ticket don’t offer an a la cart option. They currently charge $350 for the entire season for every team. Why not offer just one team for say $50. That’s 1/32nd of the product for 1/7th the price. They make more money, fans are happier. Win win? 

[billsfan89]

6 hours ago, Ray Stonada said:

Best deal is probably paying for a few drinks at a sports bar and watching whichever games you want.

 

Prefer watching at home though! Or love of course.

 

A lot of people resort to piracy which is not going anywhere.

3 minutes ago, stevestojan said:

Tangentially related: I’ve never understood why the execs at Sunday Ticket don’t offer an a la cart option. They currently charge $350 for the entire season for every team. Why not offer just one team for say $50. That’s 1/32nd of the product for 1/7th the price. They make more money, fans are happier. Win win? 

 

I would guess because 80-90% of people just want one team. I would say that most of NFL Sunday Tickets business is fans just wanting to watch their one team so discounting it would just reduce their revenue and its a business not a charity and such.

[Matt_In_NH]

1 hour ago, JGMcD2 said:

I'm not sure on this? $449 a year to stay home and watch 17 games. 

 

That's roughly $25 a game... is the average person really spending less than that each time they go and watch the game at a bar?

 

It's probably a wash. 

You never watch 17 games of your team on Sunday ticket...there are prime time games, national games, games just on in your local market for your team etc.   I live out of market in New England, I got 16 of 17 games last year....literally only one would have been Sunday ticket, this year the number will be 4-5.  So the math becomes $100ish per game....

[msw2112]

I'm out of market and while the primary reason I subscribe to Sunday Ticket is to insure that I have access to all Bills games, I do enjoy having access to all of the NFL games.  My favorite part of the football week is the last 10 minutes of all the early games.  Lots of excitement and drama.  I flip from game to game, show 2-4 games at once, etc.  Given that the Bills are a top team and Josh Allen is a top attraction, most Bills games are on national TV, in prime time, etc. so I could see most of the games at home without Sunday Ticket, but the cost, while high, is not prohibitive for me.

 

There are plenty of sports bars in my area and even multiple Bills Backers bars, but I have a fairly young family (even though I'm not fairly young) and it's difficult to be gone all day to watch football.  When I was younger and single, I was at the Bills bar every Sunday, without fail.  Now, Sunday Ticket, with the ability to DVR games and watch at my convenience (which happens more often than I would like), meets my needs.

 

I'd rather pay $300 for access to all NFL games than pay $200 for just the Bills - particularly when so many Bills games are on national TV anyway.  I suspect that if they offered single-team pricing, that the model would be something akin to this.

[Royale with Cheese]

15 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

I can watch out of market NHL games for $5/mo with ESPN+. So why is the NFL package 20X more?

 

Its because the NHL is a Honda Civic and the NFL is a Lamborghini and the US is addicted to the Lambo.

1 hour ago, Matt_In_NH said:

You never watch 17 games of your team on Sunday ticket...there are prime time games, national games, games just on in your local market for your team etc.   I live out of market in New England, I got 16 of 17 games last year....literally only one would have been Sunday ticket, this year the number will be 4-5.  So the math becomes $100ish per game....

 

The last two years was the first time in probably 20 years that I didn't buy the ticket.

 

The Bills were on prime time or local TV like 12 games last year living in Atlanta.  I wasn't going to pay the Ticket just for like 5 games.

[Ned Flanders]

1 hour ago, nucci said:

$289 for me

Did you call YouTube TV and get the discount?

[Matt_In_NH]

55 minutes ago, Ned Flanders said:

Did you call YouTube TV and get the discount?

most people just 5 finger discount it.

[nucci]

1 hour ago, Ned Flanders said:

Did you call YouTube TV and get the discount?

never gets old

[Búfalo Blanco]

Well, I hope this lawsuit (along with the Ticketmaster anti-trust suit) gets some traction. The best way to get the conglomerates' attention is to hit them in the pocketbook. Otherwise, the gouging, yearly price increases, more digital portals taking a subscription for a "primetime" game, etc. will continue... Hell, they'll continue anyway. At least this way, consumers hit them back for once...

[djp14150]

6 hours ago, Billy Claude said:

 

With NBA League Pass you are allowed to choose games just for one team but the discount is only about 10%.  I would think very few people choose this.

 

This was done due to a different lawsuit filed against nba and nhl requiring lower rates for just one team game access.

 

no rules were set on how much that should be.

 

ivr bern a regular nhl center ice customer for years t see Sabres games. I’ve seen the prices drop first after thr lawsuit completed, then after espn got the nhl streaming. Season prince dropped by $100 

[Mike in Horseheads]

I pay $150 a season for MLB extra innings for O's games. But enjoy watching other games too.  What sucks is if they are playing the Yanks or Mets it gets blacked out and have to watch on YES or SNY

[LeGOATski]

Oy....whatever happens, just don't ***** with my ability to pay $100 and watch condensed replays of every single game anytime I want year round.

[Mr. WEO]

Remember when CTE was going to "break the NFL"?  And then it was the move out of St Louis and the subsequent lawsuit to the city?

 

it's a strange suit.  What are the damages for the NFL selling access to its proprietary product to willing consumers who understand the price and pay it?

 

Individual teams cannot broadcast their games to fans through a regional sports network (or their own network)--so why is this suit claiming otherwise? 

 

Also, screaming "antitrust" at the NFL has never gotten anyone anywhere, because their status is protected by law. 

 

 

 

 

[Billy Claude]

2 hours ago, djp14150 said:

This was done due to a different lawsuit filed against nba and nhl requiring lower rates for just one team game access.

 

no rules were set on how much that should be.

 

ivr bern a regular nhl center ice customer for years t see Sabres games. I’ve seen the prices drop first after thr lawsuit completed, then after espn got the nhl streaming. Season prince dropped by $100 

 

 

I didn't know that there was a lawsuit.

 

It wouldn't matter, because the NFL would offer a single team package at 90% of the full package, however ,if the NBA and NHL are required to offer single team packages why isn't the NFL also required?  

 

 

Edited June 7 by Billy Claude

[pennstate10]

17 hours ago, That's No Moon said:

This won't be substantially cheaper if at all.  You'll pay the same to get less.  Why?  They know you'll do it.  What's the incentive to cut you a break?  It's more likely that they'd raise the price of the full shabang and price the one team subscription at what you currently pay for the whole shabang.

 

Additionally it then throws a monkey wrench onto the revenue sharing model and it gives ppl like Jerry Jones an argument as to why they should get more of the pie because more people will subscribe to the Cowboys than the Bills for example.  In short, this is one of those things that you think you want, but you really don't.

 

People talk about a la carte too.  How much do you think an a la carte game would be?  Keeping in mind there's no incentive to price it per game at less than what you pay for everything.  They know what you want to watch.  There are 17 regular season games, the current price is $450 at full retail.  That's basically $26.50 a game (I'm aware there are year to year fluctuations with national TV games, etc but you need to count it as though its a team with none of that).  I wouldn't expect it to be priced a la carte at anything less than $30 a game and $50 or more wouldn't shock me.  UFC costs $80 an event on top of your ESPN+ subscription.  Even if they offer it that way they don't want a person who intends to watch all of the games for their team to just buy it a la carte and give them less money overall.  Again, why would they do that?  They'll incentivize buying everything and call that your "discount".

$30-50 for an out of towner to watch a Bills game is sorta a bargain. 
Attending a game is $200+ for two tix. Another $30 for Uber or parking. Pregame or tailgate another $100. 
add in flight, rental car, hotel, and folding table and you’re near $1000 for two people. 
 

All in it $600+ per person if you’re from 6+ hrs away. 

[stevestojan]

8 hours ago, billsfan89 said:

 

A lot of people resort to piracy which is not going anywhere.

 

I would guess because 80-90% of people just want one team. I would say that most of NFL Sunday Tickets business is fans just wanting to watch their one team so discounting it would just reduce their revenue and its a business not a charity and such.

But that’s my point. How many people balk at $350, therefore the revenue is zero, but would happily pony up $50 for their team? My point isn’t to reduce revenue of course. But my strong guess is that thousands of more people so are currently spending zero would happily spend $50 to watch their team?