Restaurant Owner Ends Beer Boycott After Network Talks

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

“The networks assured me and my attorney in private meetings (Wednesday) that there will be no scrambling this season,” Lebovitz said.

Lebovitz, said he made his decision after talking with brewery executives Thursday. He had organized his grass-roots consumer movement, the Assn. for Sports Fans’ Rights, after the NFL announced on Aug. 17 that most of its games would be available only to network affiliates, not to owners of satellite dishes.