Title: Are You Ready for Some Football?: How Antitrust Laws Can Be Used to Break Up DirecTV's Exclusive Right to Telecast NFL's Sunday Ticket Package
Abstract: I. INTRODUCTION II. ANTITRUST BACKGROUND A. Antitrust and Section One of Sherman Act B. Rule of Reason Analysis C. The Single Entity Defense and its Application to NFL III. FOOTBALL ON TELEVISION A. The Origins of NFL on Broadcast Television B. The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 C. Football on Television Today D. DirecTV's Sunday Ticket Package IV. ANALYSIS: WHY SUNDAY TICKET SHOULD BE FOUND TO VIOLATE ANTITRUST LAWS A. Sunday Ticket Is Not Exempt Under Sports Broadcasting Act B. The NFL as a Single Entity for Sale of Television Rights C. Rule of Reason D. The Current Sunday Ticket Structure Hurts Consumers and Dissolution of Exclusive Arrangement Can Help V. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION Vince Lombardi, one of National Football League's (NFL) most famous and well-respected coaches, once said that football is a game for mad men. (1) For those that ascribe to Lombardi's theory, Sunday is a day for both enjoyment and analysis. Sunday is day when most of NFL's games are telecast on broadcast television. Football fans love rooting for their teams, cheering against division rivals, and viewing other games to see league-wide developments as they occur in real time. To provide fans with opportunity to watch all games being played, instead of just ones being locally broadcast, NFL has granted to DirecTV exclusive right to offer a package known as Sunday Ticket. Sunday Ticket allows subscribers to view any NFL game occurring at that time. Although ingenious on surface, underneath lies potential antitrust violations by NFL franchise owners. Sunday Ticket is only available to DirecTV subscribers at a high premium. The NFL is granted several antitrust privileges by Congress, as discussed below, but Sunday Ticket should not fall within these exemptions. Part II of this Note offers a background on antitrust law and how subject relates to NFL. Part III provides a history of NFL, its beginnings on television, and its current arrangements with broadcast and cable television, as well as with DirecTV. Finally, Part IV discusses antitrust implications of Sunday Ticket and how package's exclusive arrangement with NFL is hurting consumers. II. ANTITRUST BACKGROUND A. Antitrust and Section One of Sherman Act Antitrust laws were created to ensure a marketplace that fosters and encourages competition. (2) The Sherman Antitrust Act (3) forms basis for most antitrust litigation pursued by United States government. The Sherman Act's main purpose is to preserv[e] free and unfettered competition.... (4) Of many sections of Sherman Act, Section One has plagued NFL most. (5) Section One of Sherman Antitrust Act (Section One) states, [e]very contract, combination ..., or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among several States, or with foreign nations, is declared to be illegal. (6) This language was first analyzed in Standard Oil Co. v. United States. (7) Because scope of Section One was so broad by its plain meaning, Court was hesitant to accept Government's argument that the language of statute embraces every contract, combination, etc., in restraint of trade, and hence its text leaves no room for exercise of judgment, but simply imposes plain duty of applying its prohibitions to every case within Its internal language. (8) Since nearly every contract is a restraint of trade by its very existence, Court formulated a new standard: an agreement is in violation of Section One if contracts or acts ... were unreasonably restrictive of competitive conditions.... (9) Section One's main purpose is to prevent competitors from combining their economic power in ways that unduly impair competition or harm consumers, be it in terms of increased prices, diminished quality, limited choices, or impaired technological progress. …
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Date: 2011-12-01
Language: en
Type: article
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