'Financial Times': FCC Head Wants Deregulation
DEBORAH MARCHINI, CNN ANCHOR: The head of the Federal Communications Commission is going to be speaking with European regulators today. He's already spoken with the "Financial Times," and had some words of interest to telecom and media companies. Lionel Barber is the European editor of the "FT," and joins me live from London, with more. And the newspaper got an exclusive interview here with Michael Powell.</s>LIONEL BARBER, EUROPEAN EDITOR, "FINANCIAL TIMES": Yes, we were very pleased to see Mr. Powell, who gave us a very wide-ranging interview. Two things, I think, stand out. First of all, he was hinting that he really wanted to break with his predecessors in the Democratic administration and look at the rules on cross-ownership for cable TV stations and media companies -- that is not just on the share of the market, but also cross-ownership, suggesting, for example, that cable could own more newspapers. So that opens opportunities for media. The second area was on telecoms. I think he showed a bit of ankle, so to speak, on the fact that maybe local phone operators could get back into the long distance game, and that, of course, would be great for the Baby Bells, who've been suffering.</s>MARCHINI: All right, in the meantime, we could see more mergers? Is that the bottom line here?</s>BARBER: Well, we certainly had a bit of a pause recently, after the tremendous deals of WorldCom and others -- but definitely, opportunities, if Mr. Powell's line's followed. Of course, the question is whether the Europeans see it the same way. And I would be not so clear about that.</s>MARCHINI: Precisely.</s>BARBER: I think we're a bit more regulatory.</s>MARCHINI: Precisely. OK, Lionel Barber of the "FT," thank you.