Networks Give Lebovitz Hearing Over Scrambling : NFL: NBC, CBS confirm telecasts won’t be scrambled for now, but San Diego restaurateur wants guarantees, says sponsor boycotts will continue.

Norman Lebovitz, a San Diego restaurateur who describes himself as “just the average fan,” was flown to New York Wednesday by one of the NFL’s biggest advertisers to meet with network executives about the scrambling of televised games.

CBS and NBC later issued statements confirming that plans to scramble NFL broadcasts have been suspended, at least for the foreseeable future.

Scrambling has become a dirty word to Lebovitz and thousands of other owners of home and commercial satellite systems. They were stunned by the NFL’s announcement Aug. 17 that, beginning with the start of the season Sunday, the bulk of its games would be available only to network affiliates.

The news was especially upsetting to thousands of owners of restaurants and sports bars, whose businesses are dependent on being able to show a full menu of NFL games, as opposed to the one or two shown locally, every Sunday. And fans in rural markets, who lack access to cable and free TV, complained that they would be “frozen out” of the NFL’s plans--to use the words of an irate congressman--if scrambling were not reversed.

The ensuing outcry led to a series of confusing announcements by the league and the networks, which now say plans to scramble are indefinitely on hold.

It also led to the emergence of Lebovitz’s grass-roots consumer effort, the Assn. for Sports Fans’ Rights, which last week launched a nationwide boycott of Anheuser-Busch, Inc., a main NFL sponsor.

It reached a peak Tuesday night when Lebovitz, whose chain of Sluggo’s specializes in hot dogs and hamburgers, was notified by the Miller Brewing Co.--his latest boycott target--that he was being flown to New York to meet with network executives.

The transplanted Chicagoan who says, “They can do anything, but they can’t take away my Bears,” said he met with NBC officials for an hour and with a CBS official for 35 minutes.

Afterward, he said he was satisfied with the statement by NBC, which said it lacked the technology to scramble in 1990, but angry with CBS, from which he failed to get assurances “in plain English” that the network wouldn’t scramble before the end of the season.

As a result, Lebovitz said the boycott of Anheuser-Busch and Miller would continue, with Sears Roebuck and Co. being added next week “unless there’s a stronger announcement.”

“NBC assured us it would not scramble this year,” Lebovitz said by phone from New York. “But right now, I’m very frustrated with CBS. The meeting with NBC went very well. They were articulate, well-groomed, nice people.

“But we’re extremely disappointed in CBS. The young man we met with at CBS told us there would be no scrambling by CBS, but only because it ‘wishes to remain competitive’ with NBC. The bottom line is, they’re not going to scramble, but they refused to say it in English, so we walked out of the meeting. We’re not happy.”

Asked why the networks agreed to such a meeting, Lebovitz said: “I guess they wanted to size me up and decide what kind of a monster I am. As we (Lebovitz and his attorney) walked down the hall, people were looking at us like we were some kind of freaks.”

Ed Markey, a spokesman for NBC, confirmed his network’s meeting with Lebovitz and its outcome--that scrambling won’t take place on NBC, at least for the time being.

Spokeswoman Sandy Genelius likewise confirmed the meeting with CBS, characterizing the motive as “an attempt to explain our position. We gave him a copy of our statement . . . and that’s about that.”

Dave Fogelson, a spokesman for the Milwaukee-based Miller Brewing Co., said his company arranged the meetings to try to “facilitate” a resolution to the controversy.

“In discussions with Norman, he indicated that he had wanted the help of the Miller Brewing Co. to get the networks to listen to the concerns of his association,” Fogelson said. “And we agreed to arrange meetings for him with CBS and NBC. We did not sit in on those meetings, nor did we indicate to Norman what he was likely to hear from the networks.

“Norman has an objective to reach, and we were hopeful the networks could help him reach it, but we didn’t guarantee it one way or the other.”

Fogelson said late Wednesday that he was “surprised” to hear that Lebovitz had continued the boycott, which executives at both Miller and Anheuser-Busch admitted has had an impact.

“His stated objective was that if the networks met his objective of not scrambling this year, he would end his boycott,” Fogelson said. “And they have done that. He wasn’t talking 1991 and beyond; he was talking this season.”

Asked if it were a little out of the ordinary for a hot-dog vendor to be flown to Manhattan to meet with network brass in the carpeted suites of CBS and NBC, Fogelson sighed and said: “The fact that the networks agreed to meet with him indicated that they were concerned that we were concerned.”

Lebovitz, 52, moved to San Diego 5 1/2 years ago and said he retains season tickets to the Chicago Bears’ games. He said he attended every Bear home game until he learned 3 1/2 years ago that satellite technology could bring all Bear games into his living room in La Jolla--or, into his restaurants in La Jolla and Hillcrest, which often draw large crowds for satellite showings of the Cubs and Bears.

He said that, “above all,” he’s motivated by the desire to keep seeing those games, short of moving back to Chicago.

“If I end up having to do that, I will,” he said. “I will see my Bears.”

After the meetings, Lebovitz said he was convinced that both networks will be “fully scrambled” by the start of the 1991 season and that “only Congress” can prevent it. And he said he was told by network executives that after the NFL’s new $3.6-billion TV agreement expires in 1994, the league will televise all games on a “pay-per-view” basis, at roughly $10 a game per household.

“They both used that figure--$10 per game per household,” he said. “It’s mind-boggling the power the NFL has over those networks.”

Officials at the networks declined comment on Lebovitz’s remarks about pay-per-view, and league officials could not be reached for comment.