Bates to Introduce Scrambling Bill Today

Calling it a violation of consumers’ rights, Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego) said Sunday he intends to introduce legislation today that seeks to ban or modify future attempts by the NFL to scramble telecasts.

“The NFL and other leagues must offer their service to consumers who are willing to pay for it,” Bates said at a San Diego press conference.

The NFL and the major networks announced before the start of the season Sept. 9 that scrambling would get a one-year moratorium but be fully in place by the start of the next season. The league first announced on Aug. 17 that this season’s games would be scrambled.

The league relented only after the public outcry that began in San Diego, where a local restaurateur formed a grass-roots consumer group--the Assn. for Sports Fans’ Rights--that launched a nationwide boycott of Anheuser-Busch, Inc., the league’s biggest sponsor.

Bates praised the efforts of boycott organizer Norman Lebovitz, whose Sluggo’s restaurant was the site of Sunday’s press conference, but said the one-year moratorium fails to address the long-term issue of scrambling and the problems it poses for ardent fans.

“In addition to ignoring the rights of sports fans who have helped to build this industry, the sports leagues also seem to be ignoring the critical questions of a competitive marketplace and offering access,” Bates said. “I don’t think the NFL should dictate what we can watch, it should give fans a choice.”

Bates characterized as “unfair” the NFL’s earlier announcement that, once scrambling takes effect, no “de-scrambling” option will be available. When satellite transmissions were first scrambled several years ago, cable networks made available--through an authorized de-coder and the payment of a fee--the ability to unscramble.