The FCC fined the owner of WAKJ(FM) DeFuniak Springs, Fla., $2,000 for not installing required emergency alert system gear and for not having full-time employees at its main studio during business hours, said an Enforcement Bureau forfeiture order released Wednesday. The First Baptist Church owns the noncommercial station.
New ad technology that sends videos from billboards to cellphones using Bluetooth is attracting advertisers struggling to reach consumers with traditional media, outdoor advertising officials said in interviews. Quikker, the technology’s main manufacturer, has partnerships with Clear Channel and other major advertisers and expects the interactive ads to become common in major cities this year. The way ads are sent raises spam and privacy fears, but the concerns won’t arise if consumers can’t figure out how to set up Bluetooth, analysts said.
The FCC levied $20,000 in broadcast-related fines against two companies, according to Enforcement Bureau forfeiture orders released Wednesday. International Broadcasting was fined $13,000 for not painting an antenna in Canovanas, P.R., and for not telling the agency of a change in the structure’s ownership. West Helena Broadcasters must pay $7,000 for lacking an operational emergency alert system at KCLT(FM) West Helena, Ark., and being unable to find a copy of its public inspection file when an FCC agent visited the station.
GENEVA -- Better direction is needed from content owners as the ATIS digital rights management task force broadens its IPTV work to security in general. A security layer in IPTV is not seen in other video delivery systems, said ATIS IPTV Interoperability Forum Chairman Dan O'Callaghan of Verizon.
The FCC should make AT&T disclose its emergency alert system limitations to TV subscribers as a condition of granting the company’s request for extra time to follow EAS rules, said a lobbying group for city officials. AT&T wants a waiver through July to meet FCC requirements that cable, phone and other terrestrial pay-TV providers pass along several types of emergency messages. The National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors said in a Dec. 17 FCC filing it opposes the request. If AT&T gets the extension, it should be required to give the FCC progress reports on its efforts to comply with EAS rules, the group said. “The current inability of AT&T’s video service to provide EAS communications is a public safety issue and subscribers should be fully aware.” AT&T had told the FCC that it’s “strongly committed” to carrying emergency alerts on its U-Verse IPTV service.
The FCC will consider whether to require that carriers refusing to give customers emergency alert system warnings post warnings to that effect in their stores and on their sites, said a notice of proposed rulemaking released late Friday. The FCC may set tougher rules than the Commercial Mobile Service Alert Advisory Committee recommended in other areas as well, the document indicated.
Eagle West Communications gets no break on an $8,000 FCC fine for violating emergency alert system rules at its Mesa, Ariz., cable system, said an Enforcement Bureau order released Wednesday. The bureau upheld its issuance of a forfeiture order against Eagle Nest for an EAS equipment violation. The cable operator sought reconsideration, saying it had acted to install and operate the required gear.
Pat Mitchell, who stepped down in June 2006 as CEO of the Public Broadcasting Service, made $751,489 in FY 2006, vastly out-earning other national public broadcasting organization heads, according to the latest Form 990 filings with the IRS. Mitchell’s remuneration included a $48,868 employee benefit program payment and “some end of contract items,” PBS said, declining to give a breakdown. Mitchell left PBS to head the Museum of TV & Radio.
Getting emergency alerts to non-English speakers is a goal of satellite broadcasters, but all face technical limitations in attempting to do so. Satellite TV and radio are national services, which complicates the task of providing local alerts, the FCC was told last week in comments. XM and Sirius jointly suggested providing emergency alerts on their channels dedicated to foreign languages. To do that, they need to receive the messages in those languages, they said. EchoStar can deliver two audio streams, allowing it “to offer national, bilingual EAS messages -- as long as the EAS message is provided by a government agency in a dual-audio format,” it said. EchoStar doesn’t want to scroll the same message in multiple languages, it said. “Scrolling of foreign languages is contrary to the time-sensitive nature of emergency situations,” it said. Nearly one American in five doesn’t speak English, EchoStar said, citing 2000 Census Bureau data, but a “ubiquitous national solution would be a poor fit” given the 380 languages spoken in the U.S. Local broadcasters should have the latitude to reach out appropriately to those who speak neither English nor Spanish, EchoStar said. DirecTV said it can pass through multiple audio feeds. For hearing impaired viewers, it suggested passing text messages through its closed- captioning system. “Because persons with hearing disabilities generally activate closed captioning, this should be a particularly effective way to reach them during a national emergency,” DirecTV said.
The FCC shouldn’t automatically let cities and counties initiate emergency alerts, now triggered only by the President and by state authorities, said broadcasters, cable operators and telecommunications companies. Responding to a rulemaking, some TV industry filers said municipalities should send alerts to state agencies for redistribution to broadcast, cable and telco TV. A municipal body said authorizing cities to sound alerts would improve safety in disasters. Talks continue on multilingual alerts between broadcasters and advocates for people who don’t speak English (CD Nov 7 p4), another subject of the rulemaking, a participant said.