Will the NFL ever allow fans to pay for the games they want to see? Will the NFL allow fans to pay for the one team (like the Los Angeles Rams) they want to see all season? NFL Sunday Ticket has been around since 1994 and it has gone through many changes, but one change that has never happened is that fans can only pay for the games/teams they want to see. You either buy the NFL Ticket and everything that comes with it, or you don’t.
Granted, Mike Florio can tell you a lot more about the NFL Ticket lawsuit than I can. I won’t pretend to understand antitrust law, nor how it took so long for something like this to come into the spotlight of national attention. But I will arrogantly speak for all NFL consumers when I ask “What does this lawsuit mean for me?” I think the answer is “We don’t know.”
According to Florio, NFL teams have already agreed to split revenue from networks and streaming services equally. That’s common practice right now, but one has to wonder if that practice would change as the way we consume football changes. I’m going to go out on a limb and say: If the NFL actually allowed people to literally pay for the team (or let’s go a step further and say they allowed you to pay for individual games), would teams still want that revenue to be split equally?
So my question is, will we eventually have the option in August 2024 to pay for the team we want to watch rather than the whole league? MLB.TV allows its viewers to buy a team package and then for a little bit more, watch almost every game of every team (minus blackout restrictions, for example). If MLB.TV does that now, when will the NFL do it?
It may not be a question of “when,” but of “if.” It’s a question of whether the NFL would lose the current lawsuit (which I don’t think it has, but it can appeal) or whether it would lose another lawsuit later. It’s a question of whether the NFL believes it can make more money selling a team package than a league package. It’s a question of whether consumers will band together and force the NFL to change.
Can you imagine if no one paid for a ticket for a whole season?
Until then, consumers will continue to subscribe to Amazon, Peacock and other providers to watch every game, and the NFL will continue to rake in money that most companies only dream of. If it ain’t broke, why fix it? If the current system works for the NFL, why change it?
I wrote all of this above about a week ago, and since then there’s been a report that ESPN has basically proposed the idea that I (and I think many of us) want to see: a cheaper option by paying for the team you want to watch. Guess what the NFL did? They rejected it. So it seems that the NFL actually has no interest in making NFL Sunday Ticket more affordable or accessible at this time, and the NFL might be one of the few companies that can continue to piss off its customers and fans while we all say, “Thanks, NFL, can I have another one?”
So to answer my own question: Will there ever be a Sunday Ticket option just for the Rams (or just for any team)? Obviously not, as long as the NFL has the final say.
