NFL’s Recent Antitrust Ruling What Led to the Historic Fine Over Sunday Ticket NFL Sunday Ticket, also known as Sunday Ticket, is a sports package allowing purchasers to view regular season NFL games not carried by local broadcasts in their area. Sunday Ticket has been around since 1994, with DirecTV offering it exclusively until 2022 when the NFL signed a seven-year, $14 billion deal with Google’s YouTube TV. However, the NFL’s exclusive deals for Sunday Ticket have come at a cost. After a trial in June that lasted just three weeks, a jury in Los Angeles awarded over $4.7 billion in damages to the plaintiffs in an antitrust class-action lawsuit against the NFL.
Bacon on Your Ice Cream and Other Drive-Thru Blunders AI Misfires
Would you like bacon on your ice cream? Or 100 Chicken McNuggets? How about eight servings of sweet tea with that?
Those order-taking misfires, captured on TikTok, are actual mistakes by automated drive-thru computers at McDonald’s. The fast-food giant recently ended its two-year partnership with IBM to test AI-powered drive-thrus at 100 locations after these and other mistakes by the bots went viral on social media. Fast food’s foray into AI-driven order-takers is still growing. Taco Bell is expanding voice AI technology from 100 test locations to hundreds more restaurants this year. The Yum! Brands unit cited improved order accuracy and “a consistent, friendly experience” for customers as reasons. Wendy’s recently told The New York Times that its AI program gets orders right without human assistance 86% of the time. Carl’s Jr., White Castle, and Taco John’s are also using the technology. And McDonald’s didn’t rule out finding a new partner and trying again. Fast-food drive-thrus are rugged terrain for AI. The McDonald’s test became a social-media target after embarrassing videos went viral. One shows two customers yelling “Stop! Stop!” as the bot uploads orders for 10 Chicken McNugget meals costing more than $300. Another drive-thru diner tried to remove a Coke from her order that had been requested by a customer in the next lane, only to see the order-taker replace it with eight sweet teas. Another video shows a frustrated man begging the bot not to add bacon to his ice cream. One challenge for the bots is that indecisive customers often change their orders midstream. Also, different people say the same order in many different ways. Other diners babble or play jokes on the bots. An AI server at KFC, Kacy, is shown by one TikToker fumbling an effort to change an order, then running for human help when asked, “What is your favorite Taylor Swift song?” In recognition that a little customer training might help, some order-taking kiosks are posting signs suggesting they speak clearly or choose from a list of suggested phrases.
The Trial The Mucky Duck sports bar in San Francisco initially filed the suit in 2015; an appeals court dismissed then reinstated the case in 2017 before it became a class-action lawsuit. The lawsuit now covers about 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 business subscribers. The plaintiffs alleged that the NFL’s agreement with DirecTV, and now YouTube TV, violated antitrust laws. Not only did the NFL allegedly overcharge both residential and commercial subscribers, but it also removed competition. It forced fans to purchase access to all games rather than offering the ability to purchase only the games they were interested in. For instance, if you are a Philadelphia Eagles fan but live in Florida, your local on-air broadcasts are unlikely to show Eagles games. In that case, if you wanted to watch all the Eagles’ games, you’d have to shell out a good chunk of change to access those games. As of 2024, a subscription to NFL Sunday Ticket costs $449 per year. After five hours of deliberation, the jury agreed with the plaintiffs and awarded $4.7 billion in damages to the residential subscribers and $96 million to the business subscribers. Due to federal antitrust laws, those damages can be tripled. That means the NFL may be liable for up to $14.39 billion in damages. The NFL has appealed the decision, but if upheld, each NFL team could be forced to pay nearly $450 million in damages.
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