NCTA, NAB See Designated Hitter Proposal as Unnecessary Burden; State Broadcasters Back It
State broadcast associations fully supported a proposal to establish a system for delivery of multilingual emergency alerts, while NAB, noncommercial broadcasters and pay-TV operators support it but cautioned against imposing unnecessary burdens on emergency alert system (EAS) participants. Comments in a public notice proceeding that stemmed from a 2005 petition from Minority Media and Telecommunications Council were due this week (CD April 28 p19). The proposal focuses on a “designated hitter” backup plan, which involves broadcasters helping to transmit EAS messages for non-English stations that are knocked off-air (CD March 13 p10).
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Until translation technologies can capture the nuances of language, “it is essential that a real person convey lifesaving information in a variety of languages,” MMTC commented (http://bit.ly/1gEW0jK). Broadcasters should be required to coordinate with state, local and federal emergency management counterparts “to evaluate the available multilingual emergency communications resources and institute a plan of action for reasonably foreseeable emergencies,” it said. The “designated hitter” model addresses the need for increased redundancy in message dissemination throughout the communications system, it said. The FCC should direct broadcasters to work with emergency management agencies and officials “to consider how to serve significant multilingual populations before, during and after an emergency,” it said.
Educational Media Foundation (EMF) cautioned against creating new obligations for broadcast licensees, especially noncommercial educational (NCE) station owners. The proposals in the proceeding “may be difficult and potentially expensive to implement,” it said (http://bit.ly/1trxdQT). It urged the FCC to exempt NCEs or allow them to opt out of participation in their markets. NCEs don’t have the resources “to provide for a simultaneous translation staff to be on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in order to step in as the ‘designated hitter,'” EMF said.
AT&T supports the effort, but raised concern about the effect on its IPTV platform and architecture. If the FCC were to designate local primary Spanish (LP-S) and/or local primary multilingual (LP-M) stations, doing so would require a lot of time and expense, it said (http://bit.ly/1k8LBwt). Transmitting non-Common Alerting Protocol EAS alerts would be a challenge if AT&T U-Verse received multiple language alert messages from different LP stations for the same event, it said. Even if the alerts are properly identified as unique alert messages, “there would then be delays in the processing and delivery of the separate messages” to the set-top box clients, it said. If the commission adopts MMTC’s proposal for adding a separate LP-S station in a given market, U-Verse would need to evaluate any architecture changes required to support changes to the over-the-air delivery of EAS messages and the EAS/CAP system, it said.
NCTA also highlighted what it saw as a heavy burden on EAS participants if the proposals were adopted and urged the commission not to “impose impractical and costly mandatory requirements.” The proposal poses technical and operational challenges and costs for participating cable operators, “particularly for the visual portion of the EAS message that the cable operator is required to provide on all channels,” NCTA said (http://bit.ly/1mwb6Go). Instead, EAS message originators should issue dual-language messages in English and Spanish for emergency alerts in appropriate communities, it said.
NAB agreed the primary responsibility for issuing multilingual EAS alerts “should lie with the emergency managers and other officials that originate EAS alerts” (http://bit.ly/1k8MoNU). Mandating the creation of a “designated hitter” approach is unnecessary to ensure the continued delivery of emergency information, it said. NAB has determined that most markets with at least one Spanish language station have multiple such stations, “thereby helping to ensure continuity of Spanish programming during an emergency,” it said. NAB said it analyzed the radio industry since Hurricane Katrina and determined that “a fraction of radio and television markets today have only one non-English broadcast station.” Even in the event that the only non-English station in a market is rendered inoperable in an emergency, evidence shows that voluntary coordination between local stations “will be able to provide effective assistance without rules mandating emergency communications plans,” it said.
The proposal received full support from about 40 state broadcast associations. The concept of “designated hitter” compacts should allow stations to voluntarily enter into formal or informal arrangements with one other, they said (http://bit.ly/TXH6eS). They urged the FCC not to separate the issue of making non-EAS emergency information available in other languages from the issue of multilingual EAS alerts. They also urged the FCC to prioritize another national EAS test “while continuing to solicit the views of state and local authorities on multilingual EAS alerts.” State broadcast associations in Mississippi, New Jersey, Virginia and Wisconsin were among those mentioned in the joint filing. Reply comments in docket 04-296 are due June 12. (klane@warren-news.com)