Stations, Pay TV Shouldn’t Have to Carry Local EAS Alerts, Firms Say
The FCC shouldn’t automatically let cities and counties initiate emergency alerts, now triggered only by the President and by state authorities, said broadcasters, cable operators and telecommunications companies. Responding to a rulemaking, some TV industry filers said municipalities should send alerts to state agencies for redistribution to broadcast, cable and telco TV. A municipal body said authorizing cities to sound alerts would improve safety in disasters. Talks continue on multilingual alerts between broadcasters and advocates for people who don’t speak English (CD Nov 7 p4), another subject of the rulemaking, a participant said.
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Only a governor or a governor’s designee should be able to order broadcasters to transmit emergency alerts, said a joint filing by NAB and the Association for Maximum Service TV. State emergency alert system plans should have to get FCC approval, the groups said. “Multiple sources of alerts [could] lead to public confusion and desensitization to the importance of real emergencies, in a ’sky is falling’ scenario that would impede the key goals of EAS,” they said. “Nor do we believe it would be prudent to engage local, tribal and lesser state and municipal officials, who may not have the training, expertise or equipment to receive and transmit EAS alerts.”
The Association of Public TV Stations asked the FCC to clarify that it defines EAS designees only as governors and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. APTS agreed that to do otherwise could desensitize people to alerts. “We are concerned, however, that stations may be required to transmit alert messages from countless individuals and agencies, without having the discretion to determine whether the messages are redundant, contradictory, or irrelevant to a particular community,” the APTS filing said. “If stations lack this discretion, viewers may face a barrage of unnecessary alerts.”
Verizon wants EAS alerts distributed by governors or offices that governors designate. Simultaneous release of municipally issued alerts could interrupt transmission of state communiques, said the Bell. “Rather than balkanizing the EAS by vesting individual officials with the right to trigger mandatory EAS warnings, the commission should require that all warnings at the state or local level by coordinated” by the governor, Verizon said. Commissioners voted May 31 to give governors EAS triggering authority. TV stations, cable operators and telco TV providers already voluntarily pass on most state alerts. AT&T said cities should outline emergency alert system plans to states, which would pass them along to the commission, which would seek public comment on them. The company wants “uniform procedures” for multilingual and regional EAS requirements, it said.
The FCC long has stressed the risk of conflict between state and local alerts, NCTA said. “This multilayered governmental approach to emergency alerting often results in duplicative, inconsistent or unnecessary emergency warnings to viewers.” The group said cable systems shouldn’t come under emergency alert rules as part of franchise agreements with municipalities. “Cable operators are still subject to a patchwork of emergency alert obligations under thousands” of such agreements, said NCTA.
A group representing local officials said the FCC should let them trigger alerts, since most emergencies are isolated geographically. According to the National Association of Telecommunications Officers & Advisors, local officials rely on cable franchise agreements to require that their messages get distribution, an approach made impractical by a trend toward statewide franchising. “Communities will necessarily come to depend more and more on state, regional or national EAS, yet these will not address the specifically ‘local’ nature of most emergencies.”
The NAB and public-interest groups are talking about ways for broadcasters to warn people who don’t speak English about emergencies, sources said. In a joint filing the NAB, the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council and the Florida Association of Broadcasters told the FCC they plan to meet again in December. MMTC has revised a proposal that would have stations in markets dense with non-English speakers run alerts in other languages when foreign-language broadcasters are knocked off the air, said an industry source.
Compromise is possible between industry, which wants latitude to send multilingual alerts voluntarily, and MMTC, an advocate of an FCC mandate, said sources. But that is a way’s off from fruition, an assessment MMTC Executive Director David Honig shares, though he doesn’t want industry to try to delay action, he said. The parties have about five months to reach a deal before the agency issues an order on multilingual alerts. “We would obviously not stand for, nor would we expect to stand for, [being] put in the position where others can say, ‘Well, we're talking to them, so we don’t need to do something now,’ he said. “Everyone understands that, so that’s not going to happen here.”