The NAB wants the FCC to reconsider a recent order’s approach that bars use...
The NAB wants the FCC to reconsider a recent order’s approach that bars use of text-to-speech technology in emergency alert system warnings. “Contrary to the Commission’s stated concerns about the accuracy and consistency of TTS alerts, TTS is a mature…
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technology as evidenced by its common use in various state EAS systems and in weather alerts issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,” the association said. TTS helps automate alerts for stations that don’t have staff to read warnings on-air (CD Jan 26 p8). The NAB is concerned about so-called forced tuning, when a pay-TV provider interrupts regular programming during a warning to send all viewers to a “a common channel display of a simple EAS alert slide,” the group said. “Such ‘blue screen’ alerts carry rudimentary, non-specific material that is far less informative than local broadcast coverage,” it said. “Forced-tuning can be readily eliminated through existing technology, already deployed in many cable facilities, that allows cable operators to selectively exempt from forced-tuning any cable channels, such as those carrying local television stations, that provide emergency information.” That’s an issue the commission ought to “promptly explore procedural avenues for considering,” NAB executives reported telling officials in the Public Safety Bureau. Wednesday’s ex parte filing is in docket 04-296 (http://xrl.us/bmsgyp).