DirecTV, Weather Channel Would Get More Time Under Media Bureau Changes to Emergency Video Description Order
DirecTV and the Weather Channel would get more time to comply with coming FCC requirements (CD March 29 p4) for on-screen emergency information to be carried in a format where it can be aurally relayed to those with vision problems, while some small cable operators could seek waivers, said agency and industry officials. They said Media Bureau staff recently proposed to other FCC officials making such changes to a draft order due under statute to be issued by Tuesday. Those changes address some of the concerns of DirecTV and the Weather Channel to give the DBS provider and the programmer a delay in making localized emergency information available on the secondary audio programming stream, or carrying that SAP information as video descriptions, said commission and industry officials. Those two companies and the American Cable Association had sought changes for passing along SAP to TV viewers to what’s in the Feb. 28 version of the draft order.
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Not all industry associations that want changes will get them, based on the draft and what staff recently proposed at the FCC versus what filings in docket 12-107 (http://bit.ly/16yg1hb) from CEA and NAB sought, said agency and industry officials. Makers of consumer electronics and CEA had asked the agency not to deem stand-alone removable media players that play media like DVDs to be among apparatus that must be able to get the video descriptions over SAP programming (http://bit.ly/YifkIz). The association and some media companies had asked that the commission not issue a further NPRM tentatively deeming Internet Protocol streams of multichannel video programming distributor content sent to devices like smartphones and tablets as covered under the video description rules. The draft order as of last week hadn’t changed to remove DVDs, nor had the FNPRM been changed, said agency and industry officials.
Another industry sector not getting changes to the draft is TV stations, said agency and industry officials. They said the draft order would still require in two years after the order takes effect that all TV stations and MVPDs pass along what’s on emergency crawls in the SAP stream, so those warnings could be heard as video descriptions. Covered apparatus also would need to comply in two years, agency officials have said (CD March 11 p3). Top-25 market stations with an SAP stream should get three years to comply, with six months more for all other broadcasters, NAB has said (http://bit.ly/11yhnc8).
DirecTV would get a one-year waiver from having to provide local information in video descriptions of what’s on crawls, said industry and agency officials. They said the DBS company is targeted in what the bureau proposed because it carries more localized information from the Weather Channel than does Dish Network. DirecTV has an interactive app providing visual emergency information to subscribers watching the channel, while Dish has interactive features on some of that company’s set-top box models with broadband connections that aren’t integrated with the channel, said the two DBS companies (http://bit.ly/17hK67C). The channel itself would get a six-month waiver so it need not provide certain geographic and time details in warnings over SAP, said agency and industry officials.
If the bureau doesn’t propose further changes to the item, it could be controversial among some FCC members and perhaps prompt a concurrence or partial dissent, said agency and industry officials. They noted that some commissioners have voted to approve the item, while others haven’t yet. Some said bureau staff seem disinclined to propose more changes, while others said it’s still a possibility. One thing that seems clear is that the order will be adopted by Tuesday, when it’s due under the 2010 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, said agency and industry officials. Some said it might have been easier for the bureau to make more changes if the apparatus rules weren’t contained in the MVPD/TV station emergency information and video description order and FNPRM. That’s because under the act the apparatus rules aren’t due until Oct. 9. A bureau spokeswoman declined to comment.
All-analog cable systems and those in both analog and digital could seek waivers of the video description rules under the changes proposed by bureau staff, said agency and industry officials. They said the proposals don’t exempt across the board for a certain period of time such systems from the rules, as ACA had hoped. All-analog systems that can’t carry what’s on the SAP channel should get five years to comply, said the association in a filing last week (http://bit.ly/16Cs1A7). It said that after the initial waiver period ends, “the Commission should make clear that it will consider petitions to extend the waivers for classes of similarly situated systems” because of financial constraints inhibiting upgrades or “impending plans” to allow digital service to pass through SAP, said the filing.