Who Files Pay-Per-View Piracy Lawsuits Against Bars: Joe Hand, G&G and Two Others
Original analysis of 14,534 records from the Federal Judicial Center, FY2006–FY2025 (federal fiscal years, Oct–Sep). Published October 17, 2026.
We counted every new federal lawsuit filed under the cable/satellite TV code from fiscal 2006 to 2025 and grouped the 4,290 filed since fiscal 2016 by the company that brought them.
What the federal court filings show
Joe Hand Promotions filed 147 of the 299 new federal cable and satellite TV piracy lawsuits in fiscal 2025, or 49.2%, more than any other plaintiff. Over fiscal 2016–2025, four event distributors (Joe Hand Promotions, J&J Sports Productions, G&G Closed Circuit Events and Innovative Sports Management) brought 93.6% of the 4,290 lawsuits in this category, which covers suits against bars and restaurants over unlicensed pay-per-view fights.
- 49%Joe Hand's share of cable/satellite suits, FY2025
- 94%Four firms' share of cable/satellite suits, FY2016–25
- 4.29KNew cable/satellite TV suits, FY2016–FY2025
Joe Hand leads the most recent year
Joe Hand Promotions filed 147 new lawsuits in fiscal 2025 (49.2%) and G&G Closed Circuit Events 97 (32.4%). Together the two companies accounted for 81.6% of the year's 299 new cases.
Four companies, almost every case
From fiscal 2016 to 2025, J&J Sports Productions (31.9%), Joe Hand Promotions (31.6%), G&G Closed Circuit Events (22.9%) and Innovative Sports Management (7.2%) filed 4,014 of 4,290 new cases. Pay-TV providers such as DISH Network and DIRECTV filed 3.6%.
J&J Sports Productions dropped out
J&J Sports Productions filed 54.5% of new cases in fiscal 2006–2015 and remained the largest filer over the ten-year window, but it filed none in fiscal 2021 through 2025. Joe Hand Promotions was the largest single filer in 5 of the last ten fiscal years.
Filings fell from the fiscal 2011 high
New filings in this category reached 1,486 in fiscal 2011, the highest year in our series since fiscal 2006. The 299 new cases in fiscal 2025 were 79.9% fewer.
Texas courts see the most cases
Federal courts in Texas received 1,187 of the 4,290 new cases since fiscal 2016 (27.7%), ahead of California (597) and New York (336). These are raw counts, not adjusted for the number of bars, restaurants or residents in each state.
Who Files Pay-Per-View Piracy Lawsuits Against Bars
Federal courts record these suits under nature-of-suit code 490, Cable/Satellite TV. The plaintiff list is short: a handful of companies that sell commercial rights to sports broadcasts such as boxing and mixed martial arts.
J&J Sports Productions (1,369 cases), Joe Hand Promotions (1,356), G&G Closed Circuit Events (982) and Innovative Sports Management (307) filed 93.6% of new cases from fiscal 2016 to 2025.
Joe Hand Promotions describes itself in its complaints as a company that licenses sporting events to commercial locations such as bars and restaurants. The suits typically claim that a business showed a fight without buying the commercial license and invoke 47 U.S.C. § 605 or 47 U.S.C. § 553, the federal laws against unauthorized reception of satellite and cable signals.
Pay-TV providers also use the code. DISH Network, EchoStar, NagraStar and Nagravision filed 130 new cases over the period. All plaintiffs outside the named groups, including individuals, account for 2.0% and are shown only as a combined row.
New federal cable/satellite TV lawsuits by plaintiff, FY2016–FY2025
- J&J Sports Productions1,36931.9% of new cases
- Joe Hand Promotions1,35631.6% of new cases
- G&G Closed Circuit Events98222.9% of new cases
- Innovative Sports Management3077.2% of new cases
- DISH Network / EchoStar / NagraStar1303.0% of new cases
- Other event distributors280.7% of new cases
- DIRECTV140.3% of new cases
- Cable operators (Comcast, Cox, Charter, others)100.2% of new cases
- Zuffa (UFC)70.2% of new cases
- All other plaintiffs872.0% of new cases
Fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30. A case is counted once, under the first plaintiff named in the court record.
How Many Pay-Per-View Piracy Lawsuits Are Filed Each Year
The number of new cases has fallen since the early 2010s, while the share filed by Joe Hand Promotions has risen.
Federal courts received 299 new cable/satellite TV cases in fiscal 2025, down from 1,486 in fiscal 2011. Joe Hand Promotions' share rose from 16.3% in fiscal 2016 to 49.2% in fiscal 2025.
In fiscal 2006–2015, J&J Sports Productions filed 54.5% of the 10,244 new cases and Joe Hand Promotions 21.5%. J&J's filings fell after fiscal 2017 and stopped after fiscal 2020; G&G Closed Circuit Events and Joe Hand Promotions account for most cases since then. The CSV lists each year's counts for every plaintiff group.
New federal cable/satellite TV lawsuits and Joe Hand Promotions' share
| FY | New cases | Joe Hand | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 299 | 147 | 49% |
| 2024 | 461 | 213 | 46% |
| 2023 | 363 | 186 | 51% |
| 2022 | 292 | 148 | 51% |
| 2021 | 301 | 107 | 36% |
| 2020 | 310 | 51 | 16% |
| 2019 | 400 | 157 | 39% |
| 2018 | 563 | 108 | 19% |
| 2017 | 644 | 132 | 20% |
| 2016 | 657 | 107 | 16% |
All fiscal years since 2006
| FY | New cases | Joe Hand | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,118 | 167 | 15% |
| 2014 | 1,298 | 272 | 21% |
| 2013 | 1,450 | 315 | 22% |
| 2012 | 1,485 | 386 | 26% |
| 2011 | 1,486 | 469 | 32% |
| 2010 | 986 | 163 | 17% |
| 2009 | 602 | 189 | 31% |
| 2008 | 614 | 86 | 14% |
| 2007 | 425 | 44 | 10% |
| 2006 | 780 | 113 | 14% |
FY = federal fiscal year ending September 30. Share = Joe Hand Promotions' cases as a share of all new cases in the year. Fiscal 2026 is incomplete in the current data and not shown.
Where Bars Are Sued Over Pay-Per-View Fights
Cases are assigned to the state of the federal district court where they were filed.
Texas had the most new cases from fiscal 2016 to 2025 (1,187), followed by California (597) and New York (336).
The ranking uses raw counts and does not account for the number of bars and restaurants in each state. Joe Hand Promotions' share of cases varies widely from state to state. The CSV adds each state's share filed by the four largest distributors.
New federal cable/satellite TV lawsuits by state, FY2016–FY2025
| State | Cases | Joe Hand | JH share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 1,187 | 376 | 32% |
| California | 597 | 24 | 4% |
| New York | 336 | 82 | 24% |
| Georgia | 188 | 58 | 31% |
| Arizona | 173 | 51 | 29% |
| Florida | 150 | 102 | 68% |
| New Jersey | 142 | 34 | 24% |
| Louisiana | 108 | 34 | 31% |
| Illinois | 101 | 24 | 24% |
| Maryland | 100 | 25 | 25% |
| Pennsylvania | 100 | 44 | 44% |
| Ohio | 99 | 56 | 57% |
| Oklahoma | 85 | 24 | 28% |
| Connecticut | 77 | 25 | 32% |
| South Carolina | 75 | 39 | 52% |
All states and territories
| State | Cases | Joe Hand | JH share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan | 68 | 21 | 31% |
| North Carolina | 60 | 48 | 80% |
| Alabama | 49 | 42 | 86% |
| Tennessee | 49 | 30 | 61% |
| Massachusetts | 48 | 3 | 6% |
| Wisconsin | 47 | 18 | 38% |
| Nevada | 40 | 7 | 18% |
| Kansas | 32 | 23 | 72% |
| Missouri | 32 | 11 | 34% |
| District of Columbia | 31 | 13 | 42% |
| Puerto Rico | 31 | 0 | 0% |
| Virginia | 30 | 6 | 20% |
| Colorado | 28 | 25 | 89% |
| Indiana | 28 | 12 | 43% |
| Arkansas | 26 | 14 | 54% |
| Kentucky | 24 | 14 | 58% |
| Nebraska | 23 | 17 | 74% |
| Washington | 22 | 1 | 5% |
| Iowa | 20 | 20 | 100% |
| Oregon | 15 | 1 | 7% |
| West Virginia | 15 | 9 | 60% |
| New Mexico | 10 | 6 | 60% |
| Rhode Island | 10 | 2 | 20% |
| Mississippi | 6 | 5 | 83% |
| Utah | 6 | 0 | 0% |
| North Dakota | 4 | 4 | 100% |
| Alaska | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| Hawaii | 3 | 1 | 33% |
| Minnesota | 3 | 1 | 33% |
| Delaware | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Idaho | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| Maine | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Montana | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| Vermont | 1 | 0 | 0% |
JH share = share of the state's cases filed by Joe Hand Promotions.
How Pay-Per-View Piracy Lawsuits End
Outcomes cover the 3,250 cases filed by the four distributors in fiscal 2016–2023 that had ended by September 30, 2025.
Of those cases, 29.4% ended in a default judgment, usually because the defendant did not respond. Another 43.8% were dismissed as settled or voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiff.
Court records code 24.0% as settled and 19.8% as voluntary dismissals. Many voluntary dismissals follow a private settlement, so the settled share is a lower bound. The records do not show settlement amounts or the size of default judgments.
Share of ended cases decided by default judgment, filings FY2016–FY2023
- Joe Hand Promotions26.9%25.8% settled · 992 ended cases
- J&J Sports Productions32.6%22.7% settled · 1,369 ended cases
- G&G Closed Circuit Events29.4%24.2% settled · 670 ended cases
- Innovative Sports Management21.5%23.3% settled · 219 ended cases
- Four distributors combined29.4%24.0% settled · 3,250 ended cases
Download the Data and Cite This Study
Every table as a CSV file and in one Excel workbook, a short PDF summary and every chart as an image, free to reuse with attribution (CC BY 4.0).
- Federal cable/satellite TV piracy lawsuits by fiscal year and plaintiff, FY2006–FY2025New federal cable/satellite TV lawsuits per federal fiscal year by plaintiff group, plus all cable/satellite TV records including reopened, removed and transferred cases. · 20 rows · CSV, 1 KB
- Federal cable/satellite TV piracy lawsuits by state, FY2016–FY2025New federal cable/satellite TV lawsuits by state of the filing district, with the share filed by Joe Hand Promotions and by the four largest event distributors. · 49 rows · CSV, 2 KB
- How lawsuits by the four largest event distributors ended, filings FY2016–FY2023Disposition shares of federal cable/satellite TV lawsuits filed by Joe Hand Promotions, J&J Sports Productions, G&G Closed Circuit Events and Innovative Sports Management, terminated by September 30, 2025. · 5 rows · CSV, 1 KB
- Federal cable/satellite TV piracy lawsuits by plaintiff, FY2016–FY2025New federal cable/satellite TV lawsuits filed in U.S. district courts in fiscal years 2016 through 2025, grouped by plaintiff company, with each group's share of all such lawsuits. · 10 rows · CSV, 1 KB
- All tables in one Excel workbookOne sheet per table plus an About sheet with sources, method and citation · Excel (.xlsx), 15 KB
- Summary to print or forward (3 pages)Short answer, key figures, main chart, findings, method and citation · PDF, 235 KB
Charts for your story
New federal cable/satellite TV lawsuits by plaintiff, FY2016–FY2025
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New federal cable/satellite TV lawsuits and Joe Hand Promotions' share
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New federal cable/satellite TV lawsuits by state, FY2016–FY2025
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Share of ended cases decided by default judgment, filings FY2016–FY2023
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How to cite
Goldberg, L. (2026). Federal Pay-Per-View Piracy Lawsuits — Cable/Satellite TV Cases by Plaintiff, State and Outcome (FY2006–FY2025) [Data set]. Settlement Insight. https://settlementinsight.com/research/pay-per-view-piracy-lawsuits-against-bars
BibTeX
@dataset{goldberg_2026_pay_per_view_piracy_lawsuits_against_bars,
author = {Goldberg, Leonard},
title = {Federal Pay-Per-View Piracy Lawsuits --- Cable/Satellite TV Cases by Plaintiff, State and Outcome (FY2006--FY2025)},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Settlement Insight},
url = {https://settlementinsight.com/research/pay-per-view-piracy-lawsuits-against-bars}
}How We Measured
Checked against published figures
- Cable/Satellite TV (NOS 490) civil cases commenced in U.S. district courts, FY2025 (Oct 2024–Sep 2025): published 311, our count 311 (exact match).Table C-2. U.S. District Courts—Civil Cases Commenced, by Basis of Jurisdiction and Nature of Suit, 12-Month Periods Ending September 30, 2024 and 2025
- Cable/Satellite TV (NOS 490) civil cases commenced in U.S. district courts, FY2024 (Oct 2023–Sep 2024): published 471, our count 470 (0.21% apart).Table C-2. U.S. District Courts—Civil Cases Commenced, by Basis of Jurisdiction and Nature of Suit, 12-Month Periods Ending September 30, 2024 and 2025
- Cable/Satellite TV (NOS 490) civil cases commenced in U.S. district courts, FY2020 (Oct 2019–Sep 2020): published 322, our count 318 (1.24% apart).Table C-2. U.S. District Courts—Civil Cases Commenced, by Basis of Jurisdiction and Nature of Suit, 12-Month Periods Ending September 30, 2019 and 2020
Full method and limits of the data
We count cases filed in U.S. district courts under nature-of-suit code 490 (Cable/Satellite TV) from October 1, 2005 to September 30, 2025, by federal fiscal year. A new lawsuit is a case with origin code "original proceeding"; reopened, removed and transferred records are excluded, and duplicate IDB rows for the same docket are counted once. That leaves 4,290 new cases for fiscal 2016–2025.
Plaintiffs are grouped by the first plaintiff name in the IDB, after removing spacing and punctuation variants (for example "J & J" and "J AND J"). Outcomes use the IDB disposition codes for cases terminated by September 30, 2025: default judgment, dismissed as settled, and voluntary dismissal.
To check the data, we counted all code 490 records, including reopened and transferred cases, as the federal judiciary does in its caseload tables. Our count for fiscal 2025 is 311, against 311 in Table C-2; for fiscal 2024 it is 470 against 471, and for fiscal 2020 318 against 322.
What this data cannot tell you
- The IDB does not record what kind of defendant was sued. The distributors' complaints target commercial establishments such as bars and restaurants, but we cannot confirm this case by case, and suits by pay-TV providers may target other kinds of defendants.
- Plaintiff names are free text and truncated in the IDB. Grouping relies on name patterns; a few cases with misspelled names may fall into the combined row of other plaintiffs.
- Only lawsuits are counted. Demand letters and settlements reached before a suit is filed do not appear in court data, so the number of businesses contacted is likely higher.
- The fiscal 2025 figures are based on the current IDB release. Courts can report cases late, and later releases may add a small number of cases for recent years.
- State totals reflect where cases were filed and are not adjusted for the number of bars, restaurants or residents.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who files most pay-per-view piracy lawsuits against bars?
In fiscal 2025, Joe Hand Promotions filed 147 of 299 new federal cable/satellite TV cases (49.2%) and G&G Closed Circuit Events 97. From fiscal 2016 to 2025, four distributors filed 93.6% of all new cases.
How many lawsuits does Joe Hand Promotions file?
Joe Hand Promotions filed 1,356 new federal cable/satellite TV lawsuits from fiscal 2016 to 2025, including 147 in fiscal 2025. That is 31.6% of all new cases in the category over the ten years.
Is J&J Sports Productions still suing bars?
J&J Sports Productions filed 1,369 new cases from fiscal 2016 to 2025, but none in fiscal 2021 through 2025 under the federal cable/satellite TV code. In fiscal 2006–2015 it had filed 54.5% of all new cases.
Can a bar be sued for showing a UFC fight?
Yes. Distributors that hold commercial rights sue businesses that show an event without a commercial license, usually under 47 U.S.C. § 605 or 47 U.S.C. § 553. Federal courts received 299 new cases in this category in fiscal 2025.
How much can a bar have to pay for showing a pay-per-view fight?
Under 47 U.S.C. § 605, statutory damages range from $1,000 to $10,000 per violation, and a court may add up to $100,000 if the violation was willful and for commercial advantage. Federal court records do not include settlement amounts.
How do Joe Hand and G&G lawsuits usually end?
Of the 3,250 ended cases filed by the four largest distributors in fiscal 2016–2023, 29.4% ended in default judgments and 43.8% were dismissed as settled or voluntarily dismissed. Default judgments usually follow when a defendant does not respond.
Sources
- Integrated Database (IDB): Civil cases — Federal Judicial Center
- Table C-2. U.S. District Courts—Civil Cases Commenced, by Basis of Jurisdiction and Nature of Suit, 12-Month Periods Ending September 30, 2024 and 2025 — Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
- Table C-2. U.S. District Courts—Civil Cases Commenced, by Basis of Jurisdiction and Nature of Suit, 12-Month Periods Ending September 30, 2019 and 2020 — Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
- 47 U.S. Code § 605 – Unauthorized publication or use of communications — Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
- 47 U.S. Code § 553 – Unauthorized reception of cable service — Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
- Complaint, Joe Hand Promotions, Inc. v. The Anchor (S.D. Ind. 2018) — Indiana Intellectual Property Law News
Independent analysis. Settlement Insight is not a law firm and not affiliated with any agency named here. Analysis by Leonard Goldberg, Editor. How we work: methodology, our data.
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