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American Morning
Minding Your Business: Big Media Backlash
Aired July 24, 2003 - 07:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Congress, at least the House anyway, putting brakes on those sweeping new media ownership changes. A big vote, and it was overwhelming, too.
Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business," checks in right now to tell us what's happening in D.C.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, a stinging rebuke -- I think that's the only way to put it, Bill. The House yesterday voting, as you said, overwhelmingly to not support the FCC's decision to roll back media ownership rules. FCC Chairman Michael Powell had wanted to make it so that giant media companies could own up to 45 percent -- that they could own stations that would reach 45 percent of the United States, I should say. Currently 35 percent. The House saying no, we will not go along with that.
And the president indicating that he would veto this bill. A lot of people (UNINTELLIGIBLE) why are you putting your political capital in this issue, particularly when if you look at the sort of interests that opposed this, including the National Organization of Women, the National Rifle Association. I mean, who is for this thing besides the big media companies?
HEMMER: Yes, that bill was huge, more than 400 said forget about it.
SERWER: Yes, that's right. So, I think that the president right now is standing firm for Michael Powell, supporting his guy. But I think there's going to be some sort of compromise reached and he's going to roll back.
HEMMER: We shall see what happens in the Senate next.
SERWER: Yes.
HEMMER: AOL, our parent company.
SERWER: Yes, not some great news yesterday, Bill. The numbers looked pretty good, but when you talk about the subscriber base at the AOL part of the business, eroding. "Eroding" is the only word to use. It lost 846,000 subscribers in the second quarter...
HEMMER: Wow!
SERWER: ... 1.1 million year-to-date as people look to cheaper ways of accessing the Internet and going to cable, to dial-up and that sort of thing as well. So, really not a good situation there. And double counting, they're accused of counting people, and actually that happened to me. I tried to drop out, and they still were counting me for a while. So, they've got to get those numbers straight, right?
HEMMER: Got it. Thank you. We'll see what happens in the markets, too. A decent day yesterday.
SERWER: Yes, not bad at all.
HEMMER: They were up anyway.
SERWER: Kodak up, even though they were announcing big layoffs, so bad news for Wall Street -- good news for Wall Street, bad news for Main Street. And this morning, futures are up a little bit. A big, big earnings day.
HEMMER: Got it. OK, thank you, Andy. Thanks for hanging in, too, with that microphone.
SERWER: Yes.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired July 24, 2003 - 07:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Congress, at least the House anyway, putting brakes on those sweeping new media ownership changes. A big vote, and it was overwhelming, too.
Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business," checks in right now to tell us what's happening in D.C.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, a stinging rebuke -- I think that's the only way to put it, Bill. The House yesterday voting, as you said, overwhelmingly to not support the FCC's decision to roll back media ownership rules. FCC Chairman Michael Powell had wanted to make it so that giant media companies could own up to 45 percent -- that they could own stations that would reach 45 percent of the United States, I should say. Currently 35 percent. The House saying no, we will not go along with that.
And the president indicating that he would veto this bill. A lot of people (UNINTELLIGIBLE) why are you putting your political capital in this issue, particularly when if you look at the sort of interests that opposed this, including the National Organization of Women, the National Rifle Association. I mean, who is for this thing besides the big media companies?
HEMMER: Yes, that bill was huge, more than 400 said forget about it.
SERWER: Yes, that's right. So, I think that the president right now is standing firm for Michael Powell, supporting his guy. But I think there's going to be some sort of compromise reached and he's going to roll back.
HEMMER: We shall see what happens in the Senate next.
SERWER: Yes.
HEMMER: AOL, our parent company.
SERWER: Yes, not some great news yesterday, Bill. The numbers looked pretty good, but when you talk about the subscriber base at the AOL part of the business, eroding. "Eroding" is the only word to use. It lost 846,000 subscribers in the second quarter...
HEMMER: Wow!
SERWER: ... 1.1 million year-to-date as people look to cheaper ways of accessing the Internet and going to cable, to dial-up and that sort of thing as well. So, really not a good situation there. And double counting, they're accused of counting people, and actually that happened to me. I tried to drop out, and they still were counting me for a while. So, they've got to get those numbers straight, right?
HEMMER: Got it. Thank you. We'll see what happens in the markets, too. A decent day yesterday.
SERWER: Yes, not bad at all.
HEMMER: They were up anyway.
SERWER: Kodak up, even though they were announcing big layoffs, so bad news for Wall Street -- good news for Wall Street, bad news for Main Street. And this morning, futures are up a little bit. A big, big earnings day.
HEMMER: Got it. OK, thank you, Andy. Thanks for hanging in, too, with that microphone.
SERWER: Yes.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
