A California production company that handles a substantial portion of pay-per-view distribution in the U.S.—particularly boxing events—is going after several Capital Region restaurants and bars that allegedly aired matches for customers without paying the proper commercial fee.
To date this year, J&J Sports Productions Inc. has sued seven area establishments in Baton Rouge federal court: Boil & Roux, The Fourth Quarter, Mom’s Place, Enclave, Best Boilers Enterprise, Characters Lounge (Club Etops) and Sweet Ultimate Bar & Grill. The production firm alleges the venues either aired the sporting events after paying a nominal residential viewing fee to a cable service provider or used illegal means to intercept the closed-circuit programming.
All the establishments allegedly profited from the broadcasts by charging a cover fee to patrons that night to view the boxing matches onsite, according to attorneys for J&J Productions, which hired private investigators to hunt down pirated streams.
Sports bars cannot legally pay the standard fee that residential customers fork over for pay-per-view events—often ranging around $60 to $100—but must instead buy a commercial license based on their capacity and starts at around $1,500 to $2,200 for a small bar.
Citing violations of the Federal Communications Act, the lawsuits seek up to $170,000 in statutory damages, plus attorney fees and other costs from each establishment and other named defendants.
At issue are the WBO Welterweight Championship Fight, WBC World Lightweight Championship Fight and WBC Welterweight Championship Fight programs that aired in 2014, and “The Fight of the Century” Floyd Mayweather Jr. v. Manny Pacquiao Championship Fight that aired in 2015.
News reports indicate J&J Sports Productions paid a hefty $7 million for the commercial licensing rights to the “Fight of the Century” matchup alone. The fight, won by Mayweather via unanimous decision, broke pay-per-view and live gate records and generated more than $600 million in revenue, according to Sports Illustrated. Pay-per-view customers at home paid upwards of $99.95 to view the fight, while licenses cost business as much as $7,000.
More than 1,000 pirated broadcasts of that fight were discovered by J&J Sports Productions investigators.
—Penny Font
