A distributor of the Dec. 8 pay-per-view Pacquiao-De La Hoya boxing match is suing a Newton, N.H., sports bar for more than $600,000 for allegedly pirating the show for view by its patrons.
J&J Sports Productions Inc. filed suit last week in U.S. District Court in Concord, charging The Hen House Sports Bar and Grille, its owner and three individuals with unauthorized reception of cable service.
The fight, billed as ?The Dream Match,? pitted Manny Pacquiao ?five-time world champion in four weight divisions — against Oscar De La Hoya, past holder of 10 world titles in six weight divisions.
Although De La Hoya was favored, Pacquiao soundly defeated him in nine rounds
Gate revenues for the fight were $17 million, but that was dwarfed by pay-per-view revenues of more than $70 million. It was only the fourth non-heavyweight bout with more than a million pay-per-view ?buys.?
J&J, which claims it had exclusive rights to broadcast the fight via encrypted satellite signal and closed-circuit TV to various businesses and to residents via HBO pay-per-view cable, charged that the bar illegally broadcast the fight, but said it could not pinpoint how it did it.
The company says it?s entitled to as much as $60,000, interest and attorneys fees and up to $110,000 from each defendant.
It named five defendants, including Chicken Hawk Inc., which does business as the Henhouse, Henry Oshefsky, a Plaistow resident who is president of the corporation, and Nicholas Deroche, also of Plaistow, who was listed as vice president.
Christopher R. Gallant and Henry Paul also were named individually and as an ?officer, director and shareholder or principal? of the sports bar, though neither is listed on legal papers filed with the state Corporation Division.
Calls to the attorney for J&J and Oshefsky at the Henhouse were not returned by deadline. ? BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW
