Sports
NFL Media Chief Defends TV Deals at Trial Over Sunday Ticket
- Brian Rolapp says NFL wants widest possible audience for games
- Fans claims exclusive deals are anticompetitive, boost prices
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A top National Football League executive pushed back on claims that its Sunday Ticket broadcast package for out-of-market games violates antitrust laws, telling a jury in Los Angeles that the sports league seeks the widest audience possible for the games fans want to see most.
“Our model is the best in the world,” Brian Rolapp, the NFL’s chief media and business officer, said during the trial of a federal class-action lawsuit by fans who claim the league’s exclusive TV deals are anticompetitive. All of the NFL’s games “run free over the air,” Rolapp said. “We try to think about what the fan wants and get as much distribution as possible.”