By NEILL HARTNELL

TRIBUNE Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Cable Bahamas is urging the south Florida federal court to dismiss a top US public service broadcaster’s “meritless” piracy claim on multiple grounds - including that it has failed to prove copyright ownership in almost 79 percent of the alleged violations cited.

The BISX-listed communications provider, in July 17, 2026, court filings argued that Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and its fellow non-profit, WGBH Educational Foundation, lack the necessary legal standing to pursue their lawsuit because they own the rights to just 706 of the 3,308 programs they claim it broadcast to Bahamian subscribers without permission.

And Cable Bahamas also made good on its previous threat to demand the PBS action be struck out on jurisdictional grounds, arguing that it has “no contact whatsoever” with Florida and thus is not within reach of that state’s local or federal courts. Instead, it argued that it “is fairer and more convenient to litigate” the dispute in The Bahamas, and pledged its willingness to battle PBS’ claims in the Supreme Court.

Franklyn Butler, Cable Bahamas president and chief executive, in an affidavit filed with the south Florida federal court, asserted that at no time during his nine years in the post has the BISX-listed provider or any of its affiliates “captured and transmitted” PBS programming from Florida.

He affirmed that PBS content - which includes the likes of Sesame Street and Wild Kratts from PBS Kids, plus adult content such as Frontline and Antiques Roadshows - is instead being sourced from Canada-based Gulfcom Inc, with which Cable Bahamas has the necessary commercial and licensing agreements to enable such programming to be rebroadcast in this nation.

Mr Butler also revealed that, without admitting liability, Cable Bahamas in “a good faith gesture” has voluntarily halted broadcasts of the disputed PBS programming in The Bahamas until the courtroom fight is resolved. He also denied that the company’s fully-owned Caribbean Crossings subsidiary, which owns, operates and maintains the deep sea fibre optic cables carrying Internet and other digital traffic between The Bahamas and the US, has received any PBS programming content from Florida.

Vehemently rejecting the foundations of PBS’s allegations and legal complaint, Mr Butler affirmed: “During my time as president and chief executive of Cable Bahamas, Cable Bahamas has not captured, received and/or transmitted any transmission of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) programming from Florida. Likewise, Caribbean Crossings has not captured, received and/or transmitted any transmission of PBS programming from Florida.

“The subject PBS programming is received by Cable Bahamas from Canada via an agreement with Gulfcom Inc. Cable Bahamas has broadcast the subject PBS programming exclusively within The Bahamas. No such broadcast by Cable Bahamas has ever extended into, or otherwise reached, the US.

“As a good faith gesture and without conceding liability, while the parties explored a potential resolution of the dispute that is the subject of this lawsuit, Cable Bahamas voluntarily refrained from airing the disputed PBS programming.”

Tribune Business revealed in late April 2026 how PBS had launched legal action against Cable Bahamas for allegedly retransmitting its content to Bahamian subscribers - despite lacking the necessary licences and authorisation to do so - for a six-year period up until August 19, 2025.

”This action arises from a deliberate, years-long, sustained piracy scheme in which defendant Cable Bahamas captured US broadcast signals in Florida, converted and encoded plaintiffs’ copyright protected PBS and PBS Kids programs, and retransmitted that programming to the Commonwealth of The Bahamas for commercial gain without any licence, authorisation or payment,” PBS claimed.

“Cable Bahamas illegally reproduced, distributed, publicly displayed and publicly performed thousands of programs, including PBS and PBS Kids Programs, that were broadcast by WPBT, a PBS member station located in Miami, Florida… Cable Bahamas incorporated PBS Programming into its channel line-ups.

“Cable Bahamas then used PBS’s registered PBS and PBS Kids trademarks to market those infringing channels to customers and sold subscriptions that included plaintiffs’ PBS Programming as part of Cable Bahamas’ core content offering.” It demanded a variety of damages, including up to $150,000 for “each copyright” violated by the BISX-listed provider.

And it also sought “treble the amount of damages” it has suffered “and any profits Cable Bahamas” has earned from its alleged conduct, plus up to $2m “for each counterfeit trademark or service”.

But, in its bid to strike-out the PBS action, Cable Bahamas challenged the US public service broadcaster’s standing to bring the lawsuit as official registration records showed that, together with its WGBH affiliate, it owned the copyright for less than one-quarter (just over 20 percent) of the programming works the BISX-listed provider is alleged to have transmitted without authorisation.

“At least 2,602 of the copyrighted works asserted in the amended complaint list neither plaintiff as the owner on the registration certificate,” Cable Bahamas said. “Indeed, out of the 3,308 works asserted, only about 699 identify plaintiff WGBH as the owner, and only seven identify plaintiff PBS.” As a result, the BISX-listed provider said it is unclear what alleged rights have been violated.

“Accordingly, plaintiffs simply do not plausibly allege sufficient facts demonstrating their ownership or exclusive rights in the asserted works on the date Cable Bahamas allegedly broadcast the corresponding works. Because of this, plaintiffs have failed to plausibly allege standing to sue for copyright infringement,” Cable Bahamas added.

It then attacked the south Florida court’s jurisdiction, or lack of it, over its status as a Bahamas-domiciled company. “The witnesses with knowledge of the operations of Cable Bahamas, together with its documents, business records, branding, operations, distribution and marketing, are located in The Bahamas, not in Florida or elsewhere in the US. Cable Bahamas is prepared to submit to the jurisdiction of the courts of The Bahamas with respect to the claims asserted in this action,” Mr Butler asserted.

This was echoed in Cable Bahamas’ motion to dismiss PBS’ claim, which states: “Plaintiffs’ amended complaint should be dismissed because this court lacks personal jurisdiction over Cable Bahamas, a 100 percent Bahamian-owned telecommunications provider headquartered in The Bahamas that does not conduct business in Florida, does not maintain offices, own property, have employees, maintain bank accounts, or have sales here, and thus is not subject to general jurisdiction in Florida.

“Simply put, Cable Bahamas has essentially no contact whatsoever with the state of Florida. Alternatively, this court should dismiss this action on forum non conveniens grounds. Even a cursory review of the complaint’s allegations makes clear that it is fairer and more convenient to litigate this matter in The Bahamas.”

Asserting that Caribbean Crossings’ ties to Florida, via the fibre optic cable system that lands there, cannot be used to bind it, the BISX-listed provider said there was “no nexus” between PBS’ claims and the US state.

“Plaintiffs’ allegations are full of contradictions designed to obscure their otherwise meritless claim of this court’s personal jurisdiction over Cable Bahamas. On the one hand, plaintiffs allege that Cable Bahamas receives PBS content from non-party Gulfcom Inc,” Cable Bahamas asserted. “On the other hand, plaintiffs allege the only way Cable Bahamas can receive PBS content and send it to The Bahamas is via its subsidiary, Caribbean Crossings.

“As set forth in the Butler declaration, however, only the former is true. At no point does the content received from Gulfcom pass through anything owned by Caribbean Crossings in Florida, nor does Caribbean Crossings ever capture or transmit PBS content. Indeed, there is simply no connection between the state of Florida and Cable Bahamas or its subsidiary, Caribbean Crossings, related in any way to the allegedly infringing conduct. The burden is now on plaintiffs to provide evidence to the contrary.”

And, arguing that The Bahamas is the better forum for resolving the dispute, Cable Bahamas added: “Although plaintiffs apparently view this dispute from a narrow, US-centric perspective that assumes that all conduct occurs in the US, regardless of where it originates, the reality is that plaintiffs’ allegations concerning a Bahamian company’s use and distribution of television materials is most certainly a dispute which focuses on conduct occurring in The Bahamas…..

“Cable Bahamas is willing to submit to jurisdiction of a Bahamian court and accept service of a complaint based on the same factual allegations. Plaintiffs can reinstate their suit in The Bahamas without undue prejudice or inconvenience. This willingness to litigate in The Bahamas further supports dismissal for forum non conveniens. As a result, all factors favour dismissal for forum non conveniens, and this court should dismiss this action under that doctrine.”

Cable Bahamas also asserted that PBS’ allegations that US copyright law was violated cannot apply outside the US, and argued that claims it had “actively concealed its infringements” were “simply not plausible” as it had been regularly broadcasting the disputed programming to “hundreds of thousands of customers across The Bahamas”.