Broadcasters Advised to Keep FCC Rules in Mind During Hurricane Matthew
During Hurricane Matthew, broadcasters should keep some things in mind, an industry lawyer blogged. Pillsbury Winthrop's Scott Flick reminded broadcasters that FCC rules require them to make emergency information delivered audibly available as text, and vice-versa. "In past disasters, the…
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FCC has proposed fines of up to $24,000 ($8,000 per ‘incident’) to TV stations that effectively said 'run for shelter' but didn’t air a crawl or other graphic at that time conveying the same information,” he wrote: Rules also require TV stations to “aurally present on a secondary audio stream (SAS) any emergency information that is provided visually in non-newscast programming.” Getting emergency information to the hearing impaired is “a worthy goal,” Flick said. “But it isn’t hard to understand the frustration of a station employee that hasn’t slept in 24 hours trying to get emergency information out to viewers as quickly as possible, but needing to pause to ensure the appropriate graphics and SAS information is prepared and aired in order to avoid an FCC fine.” Also Wednesday, the agency said it will stay open during the hurricane (see 1610050062). State telecom commissions also are preparing (see 1610060029).