As the media have become more consolidated and corporate, broadcasters do less to serve the public interest, said panelists Wednesday at a New America Foundation event. The event was centered around Broadcast Blues (http://bit.ly/rl7hWI), a 2009 film that blames a decline in journalism, increasingly divergent political parties and more indecency on TV on broadcast consolidation and lapses in FCC oversight.
The Advanced Television Systems Committee released an implementation guide (http://bit.ly/17pKvTo) for TV stations to broadcast mobile emergency alert system (M-EAS) messages along with their mobile DTV offerings, said an ATSC news release Wednesday. The new handbook provides instructions on how stations can update broadcast equipment and “demonstrate the new functionality to local emergency management agencies,” said the release. M-EAS “uses Mobile Digital TV to reach viewers with video, text, by sound, and with informative maps, graphics, and instructions,” the release said. The technology generates a banner alert that is displayed by individual devices, and can include supplemental information “as HTML pages, maps and images, and video files,” said the release. Adding M-EAS to a station “can be accomplished at very modest cost,” said ATSC M-EAS Implementation Team Chairman Jay Adrick. The technology doesn’t requires additional radio frequency, uses the Common Alerting Protocol used by government agencies, and also “runs in the background, allowing regular TV programming to continue,” he said.
NAB, NPR, DirecTV and other groups addressed time discrepancies, location code and other issues in comments on the first nationwide test of the emergency alert system (EAS), which took place two years ago (CD Nov 10/11 p2). Comments on the test’s equipment and operation were due last week in docket 04-296.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau proposed a $25,000 fine against Turner Broadcasting (http://bit.ly/18ZY2kl) and reached a $39,000 consent decree with a Kentucky TV station (http://bit.ly/1cSYkgW), both over misuse of Emergency Alert System tones, the bureau said in a news release Wednesday. By including simulated or recorded EAS codes and attention signals in programming that wasn’t related to an emergency, Turner and MMK, licensee of Kentucky station WNKY, created a “cry-wolf scenario,” said the bureau. Along with putting out a news release on the violations, the bureau issued an enforcement advisory on false or fraudulent use of the EAS system (http://bit.ly/1bZkf50). “It is inexcusable to trivialize the sounds specifically used to notify viewers of the dangers of an incoming tornado or to alert them to be on the lookout for a kidnapped child, merely to advertise a talk show or a clothing store,” said acting bureau Chief Robert Ratcliffe in the release. According to a notice of apparent liability issued against Turner, the company’s proposed fine stems from a TBS promo for the April 26, 2012, Conan show, which used sounds intended to simulate EAS tones. Produced in-house by Turner, the promo spot was created within “a tight timeframe” and wasn’t submitted for a standards and practices review, the NAL said. “We find that the sounds used in the material are substantially similar to the sounds made by the transmission of EAS codes such that an average audience member would reasonably mistake the sounds for the sounds made by actual EAS codes,” said the bureau in the NAL. Though the base forfeiture for such a violation is $8,000, the bureau increased the amount because the promo aired on both the East Coast and subsequent West Coast TBS feeds, and because TBS reaches “approximately 99.7 million U.S. television households,” the NAL said. “The fact that Turner’s violations reached such a potentially vast audience greatly increases the extent and gravity of the violations,” said the bureau. Turner’s ability to pay was also a factor, the NAL said. MMK violated EAS rules by broadcasting actual recorded EAS tones in a commercial for The FanWear & More Store, said the consent decree. Though the decree doesn’t provide many details of the violation, MMK’s significantly higher voluntary contribution compared with Turner’s proposed forfeiture might indicate repeated violation -- especially considering Turner’s likely much larger audience, said Pillsbury broadcast attorney Scott Flick in an interview. Along with the $39,000, MMK agreed to a compliance plan that includes public education about EAS, a manual and training program for employees, and regular compliance reports to the bureau, said the decree. An FCC spokesman said NALs such as that issued to Turner don’t typically include compliance plans, which are usually the result of a settlement. Since the bureau has already issued an NAL that involved an extended investigation, it’s unlikely that Turner’s violation would be resolved with a consent decree similar to MMK’s, said Flick. “Those discussions typically happen during the investigative phase,” said Flick. He said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1b6L5Kh) that Wednesday’s enforcement actions are the biggest penalties for EAS misuse the enforcement bureau has issued, though the bureau did issue an urgent advisory after a security breach led to a bogus alert about zombies being issued over common alert protocol systems in Michigan (CD Feb 14 p). The penalties to MMK and Turner show the bureau believes “it is time to crack down on violations,” said Flick, and he pointed to a line in the enforcement advisory about ongoing investigations as “ominous.” The penalty against Turner suggests the bureau might have a bigger problem with content that violates rules when it’s produced by networks themselves rather than advertising agencies that don’t know any better, said Flick. “If there’s a distinction and they're gonna be harder on people that produced it themselves, it would be helpful for the FCC to provide those guidelines,” he said in an interview. Turner and MMK didn’t comment.
The Department of Homeland Security inspector general found that a year after the department’s Office of Cybersecurity and Communications (CS&C) reorganized its internal structure, it “still faces challenges in sharing cyber threat information with other federal cyber operations centers.” CS&C, part of DHS’s National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), reorganized in October 2012 to improve the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center’s functionality, the DHS IG said in a report made public Monday. NCCIC has since enhanced partnerships with other federal cyberoperations centers to address specific incidents and increased interagency collaboration, the report said. The NCCIC also collaborated with the FBI and other public and private partners to release Joint Indicator Bulletins related to cyberthreats and conducted drills to improve cyberoperations centers’ capabilities and plans, the report said. But NPPD needs to address tech and workforce deficiencies -- issues NPPD told the IG it is working to improve (http://1.usa.gov/1a3ndpB).
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and NPR will start a two-month pilot test in December to broadcast entire emergency alert system messages to the hearing impaired using a first-of-its-kind EAS radio receiver, said the radio programmer and advocates for the deaf in interviews. They said that under a $360,000 contract from FEMA parent, the Department of Homeland Security, NPR has enough money for 25 member stations in five Gulf Coast states to run simulations in December and January. The contract was disclosed in February (http://n.pr/HhTmj7). The system incorporates elements of FEMA’s newer Integrated Public Alert and Warning System that gathers EAS messages written in a newer Internet friendly Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) format and uses IPAWS to deliver the messages to stations through NPR’s satellite system of sending programming to noncommercial stations.
With many filing deadlines already having passed since the partial federal shutdown began Oct. 1, and more looming as the closure enters its third week Tuesday, the FCC potentially faces a land rush of comments the day after the government reopens. Unlike many other government sites, the FCC’s website was shuttered the day the government closed, cutting off access to documents lawyers and others need to prepare filings at the commission, especially reply comments. Several industry officials told us Friday they expect the FCC to grant a blanket waiver for all filings that came due during the closure.
Broadcasters provide the backbone of the emergency alert system, testified Barry Fraser, general manager of Maranatha Broadcasting’s WFMZ-TV Allentown, Pa., on Wednesday before the House Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management. He spoke on behalf of NAB and advocated for two priorities in keeping the EAS system strong. “State and local safety officials should receive ongoing training to properly use and protect the integrity of the EAS,” Fraser said in written testimony (http://1.usa.gov/18QkldO). “We strongly urge the committee to incorporate training into any legislation considered.” Fraser also urged the committee to create a National Advisory Committee on Emergency Alerting to “bring all stakeholders together, to ensure continual improvements to the system.” CTIA has been active in its own wireless alerts, testified Executive Vice President Chris Guttman-McCabe (http://1.usa.gov/1brISM4). He said the wireless emergency alerts system “went live in April 2012 and carriers serving 98 percent of U.S. wireless consumers have opted to participate in the program.” He urged the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help educate consumers with the use of such alerts. “FEMA has worked over the past four years with emergency managers and public safety officials at all levels of government, the private sector, NOAA, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to develop and deploy the [Integrated Public Alert and Warning System] capabilities that are being used across the nation today to send citizens alerts and warnings quickly,” FEMA said in its written testimony (http://1.usa.gov/1brJuBw). It was a joint submission from Damon Penn, assistant administrator of the National Continuity Programs, and Fred Endrikat, Urban Search and Rescue branch chief for FEMA.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau is seeking comment on the time of release code, audio accessibility and other technical issues identified after the 2011 nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS). The public notice follows a Public Safety bureau report that said the EAS distribution architecture is basically sound, but the test revealed equipment problems and problems with the emergency action notification (EAN) (CD April 16 p5).
Voluntary intellectual property agreements let the private sector be more flexible in policing its own industries than IP legislation does, testified several stakeholders at a House Judiciary Intellectual Property Subcommittee hearing Wednesday. “We've seen what happens in legislation,” said RIAA CEO Cary Sherman. He and others testified that the flexibility of a voluntary agreement was the reason the Copyright Alert System (CAS), an ISP-based consumer warning system for alleged piracy, had succeeded where the Stop Online Piracy Act failed. Legislation carves in stone certain expectations, making everyone on each side of the debate nervous, and complicating the ability to get things done, Sherman said. Voluntary agreements, instead, are a “great way to begin closing the gap between the business side and the content side of the Internet,” he said.