Getting emergency alerts to non-English speakers is a goal of sat...
Getting emergency alerts to non-English speakers is a goal of satellite broadcasters, but all face technical limitations in attempting to do so. Satellite TV and radio are national services, which complicates the task of providing local alerts, the FCC…
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was told last week in comments. XM and Sirius jointly suggested providing emergency alerts on their channels dedicated to foreign languages. To do that, they need to receive the messages in those languages, they said. EchoStar can deliver two audio streams, allowing it “to offer national, bilingual EAS messages -- as long as the EAS message is provided by a government agency in a dual-audio format,” it said. EchoStar doesn’t want to scroll the same message in multiple languages, it said. “Scrolling of foreign languages is contrary to the time-sensitive nature of emergency situations,” it said. Nearly one American in five doesn’t speak English, EchoStar said, citing 2000 Census Bureau data, but a “ubiquitous national solution would be a poor fit” given the 380 languages spoken in the U.S. Local broadcasters should have the latitude to reach out appropriately to those who speak neither English nor Spanish, EchoStar said. DirecTV said it can pass through multiple audio feeds. For hearing impaired viewers, it suggested passing text messages through its closed- captioning system. “Because persons with hearing disabilities generally activate closed captioning, this should be a particularly effective way to reach them during a national emergency,” DirecTV said.