Bars Want to Take It, So Networks Could Dish It Out

The NFL, scrambling for a solution to its television-signal scrambling problem, is beginning to see a clearer picture.

The sports-bar business isn’t the enemy--it’s an ally.

Most sports-bar owners say they would gladly pay a rights fee to be able to show NFL games legally via their satellite dishes. But they’ve never been given the opportunity.

That may change.

“Sure, the obvious solution would be to sell subscriptions to bars much the way HBO sells subscriptions to viewers at home,” said Greg Aiello, the NFL’s director of communications.

“Although that has not been part of the thinking in the past, it’s an option we are looking at now. But it’s a rather complicated issue.”

John Morris doesn’t see it as complicated.

He has a plan, just as he did when he and former Ram Dennis Harrah opened Legends, a bar in Long Beach, in 1979. Morris’ plan then was to install a satellite dish on top of his new bar-restaurant so he’d be able to show sports events people couldn’t get at home.

His plan now, he says, would allow the NFL to make millions off the sports-bar business without much effort.

He recently sent letters to NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, other league officials, the heads of CBS Sports and NBC Sports and advertising executives of Anheuser-Busch, Inc., and the Miller Brewing Co.

Here’s what Morris has in mind:

--Set up a telephone number for bar owners interested in subscribing.

--Establish a fee, say $3 a person, based on the fire-code capacity of each establishment.

--Allow each bar owner to decide how he recoups the fee, either by a cover charge or simply by food and drink sales.

--And, most important, have the bar owners police each other.

“When you subscribe, you’d get a list of other bars in your area signed up,” Morris said. “If you’ve paid and your competitor down the street hasn’t but is still showing games, you would simply call the 800 number to report it.

“The league would then take appropriate action--probably a warning at first.”

Morris says this system could be implemented almost immediately because it doesn’t require the expensive and complicated process of scrambling and de-scrambling TV signals.

And, Morris points out, when scrambling does go into effect, subscribers would already be in place. All they would need would be a decoder.

There would be problems, such as appeasing network affiliates, but Morris believes the money that could be generated would more than compensate.

“Let’s say you’ve got 50,000 bars and other establishments across the country paying an average of $500 a week,” he said as he scribbled some figures. “That’s $25 million a week, and about $500 million for the entire season, counting playoffs and the Super Bowl.”

Those kinds of numbers might get the NFL’s attention.

It appears that the NFL, as well as CBS and NBC, underestimated the furor that scrambling would cause.

At first, the league’s posture was to take on the sports-bar business head-on. “Let them squawk,” the NFL said.

But then Anheuser-Busch and Miller aligned themselves with the sports bars and their patrons and for good reason.

It didn’t take them long to realize what scrambling would do to sales. Morris said Legends sells about 100 cases of Budweiser on an NFL Sunday. Without pro football, it’s about 30 cases.

So, once the beer-makers, who pour millions of dollars into NFL commercials, started doing the squawking, the NFL and the networks started listening.

And they postponed scrambling.

Scrambling is still coming. But apparently it has been learned that, first, there needs to be a system for de-scrambling signals that go to sports bars and homes equipped with satellite dishes.

Among the NFL’s reasons for wanting to scramble is its tentative pay-per-view plans after the 1993 season, when the current TV contract expires.

According to the NFL’s Aiello and network officials, the thinking is to continue showing games on the networks, but also make a smorgasbord of other games available for something like $10 a game.

Thus, the viewer would have the choice of watching any game--some for a price--either at home or at a sports bar.

For years, boxing fans have had that choice for pay-per-view fights, and the plan has worked.

It also should work for pro football.

The NFL season opens Sunday with Los Angeles limited to two network games, because the Raiders, at last check, are playing at the Coliseum.

At 10 a.m., it’s the Rams against the Packers at Green Bay on CBS, with Verne Lundquist and John Madden reporting. Pat Summerall is at the U.S. Open.

At 1 p.m., the NBC game is the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Cleveland Browns, with Don Criqui and Bob Trumpy.

For those with cable, TNT will televise its first regular-season NFL game, the Philadelphia Eagles vs. the New York Giants, at 5 p.m., with Skip Caray and Pat Haden.

ABC’s college football schedule begins Saturday with Oklahoma vs. UCLA at the Rose Bowl at 12:30 p.m.

Keith Jackson, who will work the game with Bob Griese, is back for his 25th season at the helm.

“I’ve had my ups and downs, but it’s been a great run,” said Jackson, 61, who has whittled his work schedule to 26 weeks.

“I’ve now got the greatest job in the world. I get the spring and summer off to recharge my batteries, then I get to do something I love, college sports.”

About Saturday’s game, Jackson said: “If Oklahoma can’t throw, UCLA should win the game.”

About quarterback Bret Johnson, who left UCLA after losing the starting job, Jackson said: “I think his leaving is a positive thing for UCLA. I don’t know what’s going on in his head, but it appears he doesn’t want to compete, and you’re usually better off without those kinds of people.”

TV-Radio Notes

After the UCLA-Oklahoma game on Channel 7, there will be a nicely done one-hour NFL preseason special, produced by GGP Sports, with Dan Dierdorf as host. It repeats Sunday at 4 p.m. . . . The UCLA-Oklahoma game will be repeated on Prime Ticket Saturday at 6 p.m. . . . On Sept. 15, the Bruins’ home game against Stanford at 3:30 p.m. will be nationally televised over the Prime Network, which includes Prime Ticket. On Sept. 22, USC at Washington will be the Prime Network’s Pacific 10 game of the week.

For the second consecutive week, CBS is ignoring the baseball races to cover the U.S. Open. There’s nothing wrong with tennis, but does CBS really think it’s more popular than baseball? . . . Attention, history buffs: “This Week in the NFL,” on Channel 2 Saturday at 4:30 p.m., there will be a segment on great opening-day performances. Highlighted is Norm Van Brocklin completing 27 of 41 passes for 554 yards and five touchdowns in a 54-14 Ram victory over the old New York Yankees on Sept. 28, 1951.

Sunday won’t be an NFL day without Brent Musburger, after all. He’ll be ESPN’s guest on “SportsCenter” at 8:30 a.m. and later at 8 p.m. and on “GameDay” at 9 a.m. . . . “GameDay” has moved from 8:30 to 9 a.m., but CNN has a new pregame show at 8:30 a.m., with Vince Cellini and Ken Stabler. . . . Geoff Witcher has replaced John Rebenstorf as Cal State Fullerton’s football play-by-play announcer. Rebenstorf, now the UCLA radio football commentator, will return to Fullerton for basketball.

Spanish-language baseball broadcasts are commonplace, and now there is a Korean-language broadcast. Sunday’s Dodger-Cincinnati game will be broadcast over Radio Korea USA and can be heard in Los Angeles on KAZN (1300). Moon Il Lim will handle the play-by-play, and also taking part will be Jong Hwan Park, assistant to the commissioner of baseball in Korea.