Commissioners Promise Free Telecasts : Cable TV: Congressmen are upset by increasing number of major sports broadcast on pay-per-view basis.

Several senators and congressmen said today that they will take action if too many major sports events went from broadcast to cable or pay television, but two league commissioners promised that free telecasts will continue.

“The lure of big bucks may well prompt sports leagues and teams to completely bypass free TV, writing off those people who can’t afford cable or can’t get it,” Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) said at a Judiciary Committee hearing on sports television.

“As long as this senator is around, that won’t happen,” Metzenbaum added. “Congress has some leverage here, given the favorable antitrust treatment granted to sports leagues. We’ll use that leverage, if need be.”

Metzenbaum and others voiced concern about recent deals giving cable systems exclusive rights to many sports events, such as the 175 major league baseball games to be shown in each of the next four years by cable network ESPN.

CBS, meanwhile, is cutting the number of weekly over-the-air televised baseball games from 26 to 16 but will carry the league playoffs and World Series.

ESPN also carries 13 pro football games a season as well as hundreds of college football and basketball games.

“These developments are cause for serious concern,” Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) said. “We are witnessing the development of two tiers of sports programs--those available to the general public and those available to consumers who can pay to receive them on cable.”

Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent and National Football League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said cable broadcasts will add coverage for sports fans, not reduce it. Tagliabue said the overwhelming majority of NFL games will stay on free TV.

“We do not see pay-per-view for the Super Bowl for the balance of this century,” Tagliabue said.

Pay-per-view systems require viewers to pay in advance to see individual programs, such as movies and sports events.

Vincent said the number of baseball games available in local markets has increased sharply in recent years and free TV games exceeded cable telecasts by over 55%. He said even with the new cable agreement, each team could broadcast as many as 130 games a year in their markets.

Democratic Reps. Charles E. Schumer and Thomas J. Downey of New York said they are upset because the New York Yankees sold rights to all their baseball games beginning in 1991 to cable television, as have the New York Knicks basketball team and all three local hockey teams this season.