NAB Reiterates Need for EAS Selective Override
NAB renewed its push at the FCC to craft emergency alert system (EAS) regulation that would make cable operators better protect local broadcasters’ emergency signals. In comments filed with the FCC on EAS, NAB proposed a selective override in which the FCC mandates that cable operators use a filter system enabling a cable operator to replace certain channels selectively during an EAS interruption.
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Since 1993, NAB has pushed for the filter system over cable industry objections, saying it would cost about $10,000-$15,000 per analog cable facility. “While the rules do allow broadcasters to negotiate with local cable operators to use selective override, to date, the Commission has steadfastly refused to mandate only selective override of broadcast stations,” NAB wrote.
NAB said the information that local broadcasters provide far exceeds the blue screen with text offered by most cable operators, which might be generated by an unattended, automated cable TV headend. Should a cable system override a TV station, all viewers including the hearing-impaired who would be denied access to close- captioning news coverage could lose life-saving information, NAB said.
A new problem has surfaced with digital cable, NAB said. Broadcasters that have negotiated selective override agreements on local cable operators’ analog tier are being advised by cable operators that it’s impossible to implement selective override on the digital tier because of digital cable equipment limitations.
NCTA said technology has changed the effectiveness of state and local emergency alerting. In comments to the FCC, NCTA said the advent of centralized, master headends has meant that cable facilities are no longer necessarily lined up by town -- they may cover a wide area crossing many communities. “This makes compliance with individualized community-by-community requirements difficult and may result in less targeted, unnecessary alerts to cable customers,” NCTA wrote. While some cable systems can target specific places, many can’t target local jurisdictions. If a local official overrides the system to get the alert out in a particular town, in some instances the message would go out to adjacent towns not affected by the emergency, it said.
NCTA said there are situations where the override capability is justifiable. During Hurricane Ivan, which struck southern stations in Sept., the St. Bernard, La., Parish president used the override system to notify people to tune to live announcements from local officials. NCTA said it will continue to work with federal govt. and local franchise authorities to define workable emergency alert requirements and avoid “unnecessary and obtrusive overrides of cable” programming.
The Satellite Bcstg. & Communications Assn. (SBCA) urged the FCC not to mandate satellite participation in EAS, saying it’s unnecessary in light of other emergency information sources. Unlike broadcast and cable, satellite operators have technical limitations on providing local alerts, it said: “DBS operators would have to create a localized distribution mechanism from scratch.” SBCA said the costs and variables involved would be inestimable, although DBS operators could, with sufficient lead time, participate in the national EAS system. But such participation could cause interference to more useful local broadcasts alerts, SBCA said.