With Scrambling on Hold, Restaurateur Ends Boycott

Saying “the networks gave me what I wanted,” the San Diego restaurateur who launched a nationwide boycott of two major beer companies as a way of opposing the scrambling of NFL telecasts announced Thursday that the boycott is over.

“We feel we’ve accomplished the goal,” Norman Lebovitz said. “The networks assured me and my attorney in private meetings (Wednesday) that there will be no scrambling this season. We’re accepting that. It’s just that they don’t have the courage to say it publicly.”

Lebovitz said Wednesday that the boycott of Anheuser-Busch, Inc., and the Miller Brewing Co.--both prominent NFL sponsors--would continue after CBS refused to go public with an announcement that 1990 telecasts would not be scrambled.

But Lebovitz, owner of three Sluggo’s restaurants in San Diego, said he changed his mind after talking with beer-company executives on Thursday.

“I think we’ve taken this about as far as we can take it, for now,” he said. “Because of us, there will be no scrambling during the upcoming season, and that’s different from what was said before.”

Milwaukee-based Miller Brewing Co. arranged Wednesday’s meetings between Lebovitz and executives at CBS and NBC in New York. Asked if Miller had been told by the networks that the upcoming season would indeed be free of scrambling, company spokesman Dave Fogelson said:

“We have heard absolutely nothing to contradict what Norman was told. And obviously, we’re very pleased. We’re pleased we were able to play what proved to be a significant role in bringing his group together with the networks to have a face-to-face meeting so that everyone could air their concerns directly.”

Said Tom Lange, spokesman for Anheuser-Busch: “We’re pleased with Mr. Lebovitz’s announcement, because it represents a resolution to the scrambling issue. We’ve gone on record as being opposed to scrambling and feel the issue has been resolved.”

Lebovitz, 52, who moved to San Diego from Chicago 5 1/2 years ago, organized his own grass-roots consumer movement, the Assn. for Sports Fans’ Rights, after the NFL announced on Aug. 17 that, beginning with the start of the season Sunday, most of its games would be scrambled, available only to network affiliates.

Lebovitz, who says, “I’ll do anything to see my Bears,” said he moved to San Diego only because satellite technology permitted him to continue watching his favorite team.

What was shocking to him and thousands of other owners of home and commercial satellite systems was that, in making its announcement, the league offered no “de-scrambling” alternative. On Home Box Office, ESPN, TNT and other cable channels whose signals are scrambled, the picture can be “de-scrambled” with an authorized decoder and the payment of a fee.

The news jarred owners of restaurants and sports bars, whose businesses are dependent on being able to show a full menu of NFL games every Sunday as opposed to the one or two on local affiliates.

And it infuriated rural residents, miles away from cable or free TV, who said they would be all but “frozen out” of NFL football, in the words of one irate congressman, if scrambling were neither scrapped nor modified.

Because of the furor, Lebovitz said his association would now “take the fight to the halls of Congress, where the networks tell us the NFL is vulnerable, especially in the area of antitrust.”

He said executives at both networks told him they would be “fully scrambled” by the start of the 1991 season and would remain that way until the end of the new 4-year, $3.6-billion TV agreement.