Broadcasters, MVPDs Embark on Mini-DTV Transition for EAS Test Outreach

Some broadcasters and cable operators aim to air public service announcements in every daypart in the two weeks leading up to the Nov. 9 exercise, executives said: The frequency of PSAs may be about what a typical broadcast TV viewer might have seen in 2009. DBS and telco-TV companies also said they're airing PSAs. Officials of the FCC, which produced eight PSAs, said it has increased outreach to states and local emergency management officials so they'll be aware of the test in case they get 911 calls from people who think there’s an emergency. The goal of public outreach is to “make sure that the American people are fully aware of the upcoming test and know what to expect,” a FEMA spokeswoman said.

Industry and government are trying to get the message across that viewers and listeners need to take no action during the three-minute test, executives and FCC officials said. “We want the public to be aware that the test is taking place,” because “we're going to be testing EAS on so many communication platforms,” said Chief Tom Beers of the Policy Division of the Homeland Safety Bureau. The bureau last week held a meeting where EAS participants and FEMA officials talked about how they're turning to public outreach, now that nonprofit and commercial broadcast radio and TV stations, satellite radio and MVPDs are aware of what they must do (CD Oct 13 p9). The test isn’t “designed to be a public safety drill for the American population,” Beers noted.

That points up the big difference between Nov. 9, and June 12, 2009, when terrestrial TV viewers needed a digital tuner to get broadcasts, industry and government officials said. To switch to DTV, “the public had to do something, and there was a great deal of outreach required,” said Policy Division Associate Chief Greg Cooke: “Here the public has to do nothing.” A major reason for the education is that the test message FEMA will send out for TV stations and MVPDs doesn’t specifically say it’s an exercise, government and industry officials said. The message says in part that “the primary entry point system has issued an emergency action notification.” The bureau is working with TV stations so they can run a crawl saying explicitly that it’s a test, said Associate Chief Lisa Fowlkes. She said Chief Jamie Barnett recently wrote all governors and top state emergency managers to tell them of the test. The Texas Association of Broadcasters is contacting all the state’s local representatives and senators, said President Ann Arnold. She said the Texas Department of Public Safety told her it was telling all emergency management agencies about the exercise.

The FCC sent educational materials to consumer groups and community organizations, including those who work with senior citizens, the disabled and people whose first language isn’t English, Fowlkes said. “We have worked with various organizations that represent government agencies to get the word out about the test.” The Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau and other FCC offices have worked on the effort, and the agency began a website devoted to the test (http://xrl.us/bmgf5j), Fowlkes said. FEMA and other agencies “have been actively engaged with our state, tribal, territorial and local partners, the broadcast community, and other key stakeholders,” the spokeswoman said. “In the coming weeks leading up to the test, we will use all of our various communications channels, including traditional and social media.” Industry officials said FEMA is working on its own PSAs, too.

NCTA recommends members “run the spots ... as much as possible, for at least the two weeks leading up to Nov. 9,” said Senior Vice President Rob Stoddard. “There are some strong analogies to the DTV transition: This is clearly a challenge that’s national in scope, and like the DTV transition, we are doing whatever we can to reach as many television viewers and consumers as possible.” Versus 2009, there’s now a “much more compressed time frame” before the test, since public outreach is gearing up now, whereas there were months of DTV outreach because some viewers needed NTIA coupons to buy digital converters, Stoddard noted. So many PSAs will air that any viewer of TV during the weeks before Nov. 9 will know of the test, said Arnold. “We certainly reached most of the public with the DTV PSAs.” There “will be a lot of effort by the broadcasters ... especially since there could be some confusion” because of FEMA’s video alert, she said: “We are having to substitute it,” and the Texas Association of Broadcasters lets any station use its graphics.

Cable operators big and small are trying to update their encoder-decoders so they'll insert an additional message making clear it’s a test, said executives of the American Cable Association and NCTA. Audio from FEMA “will clearly indicate it’s a test,” but “in some cases it’s the video that will be somewhat terse,” said NCTA Vice President Andy Scott. EAS equipment vendors “have come in sort of late with what they feel may be a solution” for cable operators who may face challenges inserting crawls to make clear it’s an exercise, he said. There are a “large number of encoder-decoders in the field, which in some cases are at an unmanned location, so it’s a pretty large effort here” to make the necessary updates, he said: “This probably isn’t going to be universally applied across the industry before the Nov. 9 test.” Given “the very short time” remaining, NCTA is “focused on the consumer outreach, the member outreach” so cable operators and their subscribers know what to expect, said Associate General Counsel Loretta Polk.

Cable operators are telling subscribers via billing inserts about the test, and customer service representatives are being trained to handle inquiries, said ACA and NCTA executives. There are PSAs for radio stations, and TV broadcasters and cable channels will also carry video spots, and operators will insert them into local ads on national programming, executives said. Having so many cable systems in “very, very rural areas” has made the encoder-decoder work “a challenge,” said ACA President Matt Polka. “We're trying to handle this step by step, one member at a time, to give them as much information as they need.” Being “really impressed at the level of government-industry participation and cooperation,” he thinks the test will have “positive results” -- technically for EAS participants and among the public who won’t be caught surprised.

DirecTV, “actively working with FCC and FEMA to ensure that we are ready for the test,” will have audio and video telling subscribers it’s not an emergency, a spokesman said. “We also will ensure that our customer service representatives are aware of the test when answering any questions from our subscribers.” For AT&T, “among other things, we plan on providing on screen message notifications to customers,” a spokesman said. An NPR spokesman said its Public Radio Satellite System will be involved in the test.

TV station slides saying it’s a test may not be shown because the emergency alert notification sent out by FEMA overrides all channels on cable systems, said President Suzanne Goucher of the Maine Association of Broadcasters. “So, many cable viewers will only see the text crawl and wonder what ‘emergency action’ they should be taking,” she added: “That’s why everybody’s so hair-on-fire about pre-test outreach, particularly to the hearing-impaired community” who will only see the video and not hear the audio message which does say it’s a test.