NFL v. Ninth Inning, Inc. – Should Section 1 Apply to Joint Ventures’ Decisions on Distribution of Their New Products?

The Supreme Court’s November 2, 2020 denial of certiorari in National Football League v. Ninth Inning Inc., a challenge to the NFL’s centralized distribution of game telecast rights, also saves for another day a more fundamental argument that a group of distinguished antitrust economists made in an amicus brief supporting the NFL: when a joint venture creates a new product that its members could not create efficiently by themselves, there is no useful role for Section 1 to play in evaluating