LOS ANGELES (AP) — A class-action lawsuit filed by “Sunday Ticket” subscribers claiming the NFL broke antitrust laws got underway in federal court Thursday with the league’s attorney telling jurors that fans have a choice when it comes to watching games and the “Sunday Ticket” package is a premium product.

“The case is about choice. This is a valuable, premium product. Think about all the choices available to fans. We want as many people as possible to watch the free broadcasts,” said Beth Wilkinson, who is representing the NFL.

The lawsuit, which was filed in 2015 and has withstood numerous challenges, says the NFL broke antitrust law when it allowed DirecTV to exclusively sell the “Sunday Ticket” package of out-of-market Sunday afternoon games airing on CBS and Fox at what it says was an inflated price and restricted competition.

“NFL, Fox, CBS and DirecTV agreed to make an expensive toll road that very few people would be able to afford. Every single competitor in this scheme benefited,” Amanda Bonn, an attorney representing “Sunday Ticket” subscribers, said in her opening remarks Thursday.

DirecTV was the home of “NFL Sunday Ticket” from 1994 until 2022. YouTube will be in the second season this year of a seven-year deal after agreeing to the rights in December 2022.

The class-action case covers more than 2.45 million commercial and residential subscribers from 2012 to 2022 and seeks $7.1 billion in damages. Since damages are tripled under federal rules, the NFL could be liable for up to $21 billion if it loses.

The NFL contends “Sunday Ticket” is an add-on package for the league’s most-devoted and out-of-town fans, along with noting that all games for local teams are available on broadcast networks.

Steve Bornstein, a former NFL executive and the first president of NFL Network, said during afternoon testimony that “Sunday Ticket” was always set up so that it wouldn’t broadly hamper CBS and Fox’s local ratings.

Contracts between DirecTV and the NFL that were entered into evidence on Thursday showed language that “it will marketed and offered in a manner consistent as a high-quality premium subscription sports offering.”

“The NFL always wanted ‘Sunday Ticket’ to be an additional package. That is how it is was designed since its inception,” Bornstein said.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, a longtime member of the league’s broadcast committee, are expected to testify in a trial that could last up to three weeks.

The trial could bring to light how much YouTube is paying the NFL for “Sunday Ticket” and if it is making money. There also will be documents filed that would show how much networks spend to produce an NFL game.

Bonn showed a 2020 term sheet by Fox Sports demanding the NFL ensure “Sunday Ticket” would be priced above $293.96 per season on streaming platforms in the 11-year rights deal it signed with the NFL in 2021 and that began in 2023. That was the price for the 2020 season.

When the “Sunday Ticket” contract was up for bid in 2022, ESPN wanted to offer the package on its streaming service for $70 per season along with offering a team-by-team product, according to an email shown by Bonn.

This is one of the rare occasions where the NFL has had a high-profile case go to court where league financial matters would become public without settling. In 2021, it settled with St. Louis, St. Louis County and the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority for $790 million over the relocation of the Rams to Los Angeles.

The “Sunday Ticket” case attracted a large crowd of attorneys and media members to the courtroom of Judge Philip S. Gutierrez. An overflow room was eventually set up 10 minutes into opening statements.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Boeing launched astronauts for the first time Wednesday, belatedly joining SpaceX as a second taxi service for NASA.

A pair of NASA test pilots blasted off aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule for the International Space Station, the first to fly the new spacecraft.

The trip by Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams was expected to take 25 hours, with an arrival Thursday. They will spend just over a week at the orbiting lab before climbing back into Starliner for a remote desert touchdown in the western U.S. on June 14.

“Let’s get going!” Wilmore called out a few minutes before liftoff.

Half an hour later, he and Williams were safely in orbit and giving chase to the space station. Back at Cape Canaveral, the relieved launch controllers stood and applauded. After all the trouble leading up to Wednesday’s launch, including two scrapped countdowns, everything went smoothly before and during liftoff, prompting congratulations from SpaceX’s Elon Musk and others.

“Today it all lined up,” said Boeing program manager Mark Nappi.

Years late because of spacecraft flaws, Starliner’s crew debut comes as the company struggles with unrelated safety issues on its airplane side.

Wilmore and Williams — retired Navy captains and former space station residents — stressed repeatedly before the launch that they had full confidence in Boeing’s ability to get it right with this test flight. Crippled by bad software, Starliner’s initial test flight in 2019 without a crew had to be repeated before NASA would let its astronauts strap in. The 2022 do-over went much better, but parachute problems later cropped up and flammable tape had to be removed from the capsule.

Wednesday’s launch was the third attempt with astronauts since early May, coming after a pair of rocket-related problems, most recently last weekend. A small helium leak in the spacecraft’s propulsion system also caused delays, but remained extremely low and manageable.

“It’s just a tough endeavor to get to flight and huge kudos to the entire team for getting there,” said Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager.

Boeing was hired alongside Elon Musk’s SpaceX a decade ago to ferry NASA’s astronauts to and from the space station. The space agency wanted two competing U.S. companies for the job in the wake of the space shuttles’ retirement, paying $4.2 billion to Boeing and just over half that to SpaceX, which refashioned the capsule it was using to deliver station supplies.

SpaceX launched astronauts into orbit in 2020, becoming the first private business to achieve what only three countries — Russia, the U.S. and China — had mastered. It has taken nine crews to the space station for NASA and three private groups for a Houston company that charters flights.

The liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was the 100th of an Atlas V for rocket maker United Launch Alliance. It was the first ride for astronauts on an Atlas rocket since John Glenn’s Mercury era more than 60 years ago; the rocket usually launches satellites and other spacecraft.

Despite the Atlas V’s perfect record, the human presence cranked up the tension for the scores of NASA and Boeing employees gathered at Cape Canaveral and Mission Control in Houston.

Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Dragon are designed to be fully autonomous and reusable. Wilmore and Williams occasionally will take manual control of Starliner on their way to the space station, to check out its systems. The only snag early in the flight involved the capsule’s cooling system. More water was used than expected before the radiators took over in orbit. The tank will be refilled before the ride home.

If the mission goes well, NASA will alternate between SpaceX and Boeing for taxi flights, beginning next year. The backup pilot for this test flight, Mike Fincke, will strap in for Starliner’s next trip.

“This is exciting. We built up to this moment for years and years, and it finally happened,” Fincke said from neighboring Kennedy Space Center. “I feel like the whole planet was cheering for them.”