Gideon (34 page)

[Are they on the Web?]

[No, for obvious reasons.]

[Why obvious?]

[You’ll find out when you meet ’em. Anything else?]

[Now that you mention it … can you find out what
bienvenue is
?]

[I’m sure I can. But can you give a girl some kind of teeny clue?]

[Wish I could. It’s a French word. Means “welcome.”]

[What is it you need to know?]

[Why a man who’s about to fly the coop would tattoo that word on his body.]

[By fly the coop, do you mean leave the country?]

Amanda looked back at Carl, who nodded.

[Affirmative.]

[I’ll get right on it. Later, girl. Be good.]

[Too late for that, I’m afraid.]

[Well, then you sure as shit be careful. Love you.]

[Ditto.]

She disconnected the modem from the cybermail service and sat staring at the blank screen in front of her. She didn’t sit long, however, because Carl was tugging at her arm, pulling her up.

“For God’s sake, Amanda, let’s get out of here,” he said urgently.

She looked at the proprietor, who was staring at them, squinting. She looked at the two computer nerds, who now glanced up curiously at the strange sound of human conversation. And she looked longingly back at the computer screen, a tether to a much saner past.

They got out of there.

Partial transcript of the July 11 meeting of the Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee. Topic: international satellite and wireless communications. Transmitted on the Internet, http://www.anntranscripts.com.

Watch Friday’s hearing in its entirety on ANN-Span, ANN’s new spin-off channel, devoted to coverage of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Rely on ANN On-line for live coverage of all the Senate Commerce Committee hearings as well as the Senate Government Affairs Committee’s hearings on campaign finance investigations. Listen to preview hearings with your free RealPlayer in our Senate Committee Archive.

The committee is tentatively scheduled to continue hearings on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday next week. Each hearing is scheduled to begin at 10:00 A.M. Eastern time. Please note that the Congress will be in recess from Saturday, August 2, through Monday, September 1. Therefore no hearings will be held during the month of August. Hearings will resume in September.

On June 17, the Senate Commerce Committee began looking into complications arising from international business dealings and potential problems as to rights, monopolistic takeovers, and governmental restrictions relating to satellite and wireless communications. The House Committee on Commerce Reform is expected to begin similar hearings later this year.

Committee members: chairman, Senator Walter Chalmers (R-Wyoming); Senator Charles Benton (R-Rhode Island); Senator Molly Hearns (D-California); Senator Alexander Mayfield (D-Maryland); Senator Paul Maxwell (D-Texas).

Today the Committee’s witness list includes Lord Lindsay Augmon, chairman and CEO of Apex International.

Jeremiah D. Bickford, vice president of the United States of America, has had his appearance canceled due to a scheduling conflict.

SENATOR WALTER CHALMERS: Good morning. I am Senator Walter Chalmers, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection. I would like to thank all of our committee members as well as our first witness, Lord Lindsay Augmon, for agreeing to testify and educate us all. Lord Augmon.

LINDSAY AUGMON: I am Lindsay Augmon, chairman and chief executive officer of Apex International. I would like to thank Chairman Chalmers and the entire committee for the opportunity to testify today.

SENATOR CHALMERS: Mr. Augmon … it
is
all right if I call you Mr. Augmon?

LINDSAY AUGMON: I’ll even give you permission to call me Lindsay, Walter.

SENATOR CHALMERS: Thank you so much. Lindsay … you are aware that we had the president of Fairfield Aviation talking to us yesterday?

LINDSAY AUGMON: I am. I use Fairfield Aviation to build and launch my communications satellites.

SENATOR CHALMERS: And the cost of that building and launching?

LINDSAY AUGMON: Somewhere approximating a hundred million dollars.

SENATOR CHALMERS: That’s per satellite?

LINDSAY AUGMON: Yes, per satellite.

SENATOR HEARNS: According to my figures, it’s closer to a hundred and twenty-five million.

LINDSAY AUGMON: It can go that high.

SENATOR HEARNS: Then, for the record, can we say that the cost approximates a hundred and twenty-five million dollars?

LINDSAY AUGMON: It’s a fair approximation.

SENATOR CHALMERS: Thank you, Senator Hearns. But I’d appreciate it if you would wait until it’s your turn before questioning Mr. Augmon.

SENATOR HEARNS: You mean Lindsay, don’t you?

SENATOR CHALMERS: Mr. Augmon, exactly what areas of communications do you use these satellites for?

LINDSAY AUGMON: All areas Apex is involved with. Direct television broadcasting, radio, wireless communications.

SENATOR CHALMERS: Can you give us some idea of your holdings in these areas?

LINDSAY AUGMON: I can give you a very specific idea. Apex has satellite coverage on five continents. In Latin America we have Apex Entertainment Latin America and Channel Apex. In the United Kingdom we have Apex Star Broadcasting. In Germany we own ApexEin. In Australia, it’s Aptel, and in India we have StateTV and Star India. And, as you know, Senator, we’ve just branched off into America with ApStarUS.

SENATOR CHALMERS: I wonder if you could give us a little more detail about some of these holdings. Would you mind elaborating on, oh, let’s say India? This is strictly for our education, of course.

LINDSAY AUGMON: What, specifically, would you like to be educated about?

SENATOR CHALMERS: Let’s start with the size of the audience.

LINDSAY AUGMON: Right now, not enormous. Only about forty-five million Indians have color TV sets. And I don’t have exclusive satellite rights. I’m forced to share.

SENATOR HEARNS: I’m sorry to hear that. Sharing can be such a bitch.

SENATOR CHALMERS: Senator, please. Mr. Augmon, when you build and launch a satellite, then enlist your subscription base in a foreign country, are there any economic ramifications here in this country?

LINDSAY AUGMON: Wide-ranging ramifications.

SENATOR CHALMERS: Would you please elaborate?

LINDSAY AUGMON: We manufacture in southern California. That’s where Fairfield is located. Obviously, we provide a substantial number of jobs. Every time we build a satellite, it brings tens of millions of dollars into the community. Then, of course, because so many of my entertainment holdings are American-based, most of the product that is supplied for overseas viewing brings money to those companies. Not only does that money keep those corporations going, which in turn provides tens of thousands of jobs and brings in money to the local communities, but quite a bit of it goes directly to the government.

SENATOR CHALMERS: You’re talking about taxes?

LINDSAY AUGMON: I’m talking about hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes.

SENATOR CHALMERS: Where would you like to be that you’re not, sir?

LINDSAY AUGMON: I’m afraid I don’t understand the question.

SENATOR CHALMERS: What countries would you like to broadcast to but do not yet have a license for?

LINDSAY AUGMON: Ah. That’s an easy one to answer. Every single country you could possibly name.

SENATOR HEARNS: You’re in very good shape, Mr. Augmon, for someone with such a voracious appetite.

SENATOR CHALMERS: I’ve just about had it with your wisecracks, Senator. If you can’t maintain the proper protocol, I suggest you leave for this portion of the testimony.

SENATOR HEARNS: I do apologize, Senator. And as hard as it may be, I’ll do my best to bite my tongue for the rest of your grand inquisition.

SENATOR CHALMERS: Well, thank the good Lord above. Mr. Augmon, I am confused about something: Why
aren’t
you broadcasting in more countries?

LINDSAY AUGMON: As you know, Senator, it’s not that easy. There are rules and regulations. And I must follow them like everyone else.

SENATOR CHALMERS: Can you give us some examples?

LINDSAY AUGMON: Trade issues between governments, for one. That can cause quite a snafu.

SENATOR CHALMERS: Because we don’t do business with Cuba, you can’t get a license to broadcast to Cuba—that sort of thing?

LINDSAY AUGMON: Exactly that sort of thing.

SENATOR CHALMERS: Are there other examples?

LINDSAY AUGMON: Airspace. The FCC controls satellite airspace, the orbit slots.

SENATOR CHALMERS: It’s hard to get those slots, is it?

LINDSAY AUGMON: Extremely difficult.

SENATOR CHALMERS: And why is that?

LINDSAY AUGMON: Many reasons. It’s a very competitive business now. And there’s a shortage of rockets at the moment. It takes up to two years to build one of these hundred-million-dollar toys. But a slot may not stay open for two years.

SENATOR CHALMERS: If you don’t get a particular slot, what happens to it? Someone else gets it?

LINDSAY AUGMON: Yes. But that someone might not, by the time the slot opens, have the money to launch their missile. Or their satellite might not be ready. And since we—and by “we” I mean America, Senator—are not the only ones in this business, it is very possible for another country to then have the means to control the flow of communications to the country we were bidding for.

SENATOR CHALMERS: And when that happens?

LINDSAY AUGMON: Then all the money we’ve been discussing—the money that goes to the American communities, the jobs that go to American communities, the jobs that go to American workers, the taxes that go to the American government—then it all goes somewhere else.

SENATOR CHALMERS: Now, we’ve agreed that a satellite launching costs about a hundred and twenty-five million dollars. And even for you, that’s a lot of money to gamble with no guarantee of a launch slot.

LINDSAY AUGMON: Even for me. One would have to be crazy to take that kind of a gamble.

SENATOR CHALMERS: And yet unless you take that gamble, our gamble, the American gamble, is that we lose hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

LINDSAY AUGMON: That’s correct.

SENATOR CHALMERS: Thank you, Lindsay. I greatly appreciate your participation today. It’s with some trepidation I now turn the floor over to my esteemed colleague, Ms. Hearns.

SENATOR HEARNS: Thank you, Senator. I hope your trepidation is not wasted on me. Mr. Augmon, I’d like to go back to the discussion of your Indian holdings, the ones you’re forced to share, if you don’t mind. What is the cost, to the consumer, of that little non exclusive service of yours? What was it, StateTV?

LINDSAY AUGMON: And Star India. The subscription cost is approximately twenty dollars per month.

SENATOR HEARNS: For both services combined?

LINDSAY AUGMON: No. Per service.

SENATOR HEARNS: Let’s just say that half of those television owners subscribe to your service. Is that a fair estimate?

LINDSAY AUGMON: Ultimately, I certainly hope so. Right now it’s much closer to twenty percent.

SENATOR HEARNS: Let’s call it twenty-five percent, assuming a certain amount of growth. That’s approximately eleven million subscribers. At forty dollars per subscriber, that comes to … let’s see …

LINDSAY AUGMON: It comes to four hundred and forty million dollars, Senator.

SENATOR HEARNS: And that doesn’t strike you as an enormous sum?

LINDSAY AUGMON: I was talking about the audience before, not the dollars. And no, considering the potential, I would not describe it as enormous.

SENATOR HEARNS: What
would
be enormous to you, Mr. Augmon?

LINDSAY AUGMON: It’s a relative term. Hard to define.

SENATOR HEARNS: How about your own company, Mr. Augmon? How about Apex? Would you describe
that
as enormous?

LINDSAY AUGMON: It’s a large company.

SENATOR HEARNS: I’m reading from a story in the
New York Times
from approximately two months ago. They list the holdings for Apex International. I’m going to read them, if you don’t mind, and I’d like you to correct anything that might be inaccurate. In the area of film, it says that you own what used to be Crown International Films, now renamed the Apex Studio. Under that banner, you own Apex Films, Apex Century, Apex Independent, Apex Family Films, Apex animation Studios, and Apex Television Productions. It also says that the Apex studio was the second highest grossing studio of the last three years. Does that about cover it?

LINDSAY AUGMON: I believe you left out our Apex Documentary division, but that’s close enough.

SENATOR HEARNS: In the area of television, you own the Apex Broadcasting Network, the Apex News Network, fifteen Apex television stations, and, in England, Channel Nine. Your newspaper empire here in this country includes the
New York Herald
, the
Washington Journal
, and the
Chicago Daily Mirror
. In England, you own the four largest papers in the country—

LINDSAY AUGMON: Four of the five largest papers.

SENATOR HEARNS: Thank you for the correction. In Australia, you own one hundred and twenty-two newspapers. Can that possibly be correct?

LINDSAY AUGMON: It can.

SENATOR HEARNS: You own
TV Pathfinder
magazine and the Magazine Group, which includes scientific trade journals and four so-called women’s magazines. You own Apex Books, the third largest book publishing company in the country. There are all your cable and satellite operations, which you’ve already enumerated. And then there are your various other companies—printing operations, paper manufacturing, record companies …

LINDSAY AUGMON: Yes, Senator, I concede your point. It’s an enormous company.

SENATOR HEARNS: Can we focus just a moment longer on some of those satellite holdings?

LINDSAY AUGMON: It’s the purpose of this little get-together, I believe.

SENATOR HEARNS: You said you’d like to be everywhere you’re not yet, isn’t that right?