A telco-video provider and a radio station sought FCC waivers of emergency alert system rules for the newer common alerting protocol, which all EAS participants must use to receive and pass along messages by month’s end (CD June 13 p5). Windstream seeks a temporary, “brief” waiver because of an “unexpected delay in delivery of equipment necessary for compliance” until it gets the gear, tests and installs it. Windstream’s Lakedale, Minn., unit “exercised diligence in placing an order for the CAP-to-EAS converter that would be delivered prior to June 1, 2012 to allow sufficient time to install and test the new equipment prior to the implementation deadline,” a filing said (http://xrl.us/bnbvnx). “Unfortunately, Windstream Lakedale recently learned that delivery of its order has been delayed until mid-July, reportedly due to the large number of other EAS participants ordering such equipment for delivery at roughly the same time so as to comply with the Commission’s mandate.” EAS participants and vendors told us of such delays due to some other orders they contend needed to have been placed earlier for gear that converts alerts in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s CAP format into EAS alerts that radio and TV stations and subscription-video providers send to customers. Kenai Broadcasting wants a waiver for KKNI Sterling, Alaska, because the FM station can’t get Internet service at its transmitter. “Even if KKNI were to acquire and install CAP capable equipment, it would not be able to communicate with the CAP system,” a filing said (http://xrl.us/bnbvn5). The filings were posted Thursday to docket 04-296.
The American Cable Association withdrew a petition for the FCC to redo emergency alert system rules so small cable systems can get streamlined waivers of a requirement they be able to get EAS warnings in Common Alerting Protocol format by June 30. The April 20 petition for reconsideration of the CAP order “was not published in the Federal Register until June 8, 2012, initiating a comment cycle that ends July 3, 2012,” (CD June 11 p14) the association said in a withdrawal request posted Tuesday in docket 04-296 (http://xrl.us/bnboth). “It is now apparent that the comment cycle for the Petition for Reconsideration will extend beyond the June 30, 2012 EAS CAP compliance deadline."
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions released two additional standards that address the future support of multiple languages, including Spanish, to send emergency alerts to wireless devices through the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS). “The standards will allow users to select additional languages in which to receive CMAS alerts beyond English once a national policy is established and alert messages in additional languages are available and being broadcast in their geographic area to CMAS-compatible devices,” ATIS said (http://xrl.us/bnbodx).
Storm warnings and other government alerts could go to search engines, online news feeds, social media and other Web outlets, broadcast and other industry officials said. They said that will be made possible when the Federal Emergency Management Agency soon starts a website for anyone to get real-time emergency alert system messages. Companies that don’t participate in EAS could get alerts from federal, state and municipal agencies that write them in a new FEMA format. Those websites could then distribute them online as narrowly or widely as they wish.
Comments on changes to emergency alert system rules (CD May 30 p11) sought by an American Cable Association petition for reconsideration of an FCC EAS order are due June 25 in docket 04-296, replies July 3, the agency said in a notice in Friday’s Federal Register (http://xrl.us/bnbab4). Another notice said comments on a request by Ion Media to move WEPX-TV Greenville, N.C., off Channel 51 to 26 (CD May 29 p15) are due in docket 12-130 on July 9, replies July 23 (http://xrl.us/bnbaci).
The FCC got Office of Management and Budget approval for six months of information collection requirements as part of an emergency alert system order, which took effect Thursday, the commission said in that day’s Federal Register (http://xrl.us/bna5a2). That means new rules for radio and TV stations and subscription-video providers to pass along warnings in the common alerting protocol format (CD March 23 p4) are in effect before the June 30 deadline for CAP compliance, said the Fletcher Heald law firm that has clients who are alert participants (http://xrl.us/bna5aw). “While OMB approval normally lasts three years, the Commission had sought ‘emergency’ OMB review, meaning that the FCC had cut some procedural corners in the usual Paperwork Reduction Act clearance process. The abbreviated six-month approval from OMB will give the Commission the opportunity to fill in the gaps.” FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials spoke on a webcast organized by FEMA, which developed CAP, about the format late Wednesday. (See report above.)
Major websites are interested in getting emergency alert system feeds becoming available over the Internet now that the government and EAS participants are implementing a new format, federal officials and broadcasters said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s integrated public alert and warning system makes it possible for websites to get real-time access to EAS messages, noted FEMA IPAWS Director Antwane Johnson on an agency webinar late Wednesday. Traditional EAS participants in the broadcasting and pay-TV industries are getting ready for the Common Alerting Protocol message format that distributes the alerts online, which the FCC has required be able to be received and passed on starting at month’s end, FEMA and FCC officials noted.
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said Wednesday he didn’t think there is enough political will for lawmakers to tackle music royalty performance rights this session. He'd prefer an industry-based solution rather than congressional intervention, he said: “Frankly you see a stalemate up here on these issues, and so it really is better done out in the marketplace,” he told us following a subcommittee hearing on the future of audio. He and other subcommittee members praised a recent Clear Channel agreement to pay performance royalties to the Big Machine Label Group and its artists (CD June 6 p12).
The Advanced TV Systems Committee approved a new delivery standard for “non-real-time” content, it said Tuesday. The delivery of non-real-time services via the backward-compatible “A/103” standard “will now allow broadcasters to deliver file-based content, including programs and clips, information for emergency alerts and even commercial applications such as digital signage,” the ATSC said. The standard supports terrestrial transmission to fixed and mobile DTV receivers that are outfitted with “the new flexibility,” it said. The standard “gives broadcasters the capability to deliver all types of file-based content to consumers,” President Mark Richer said. “Using broadcast television, programmers will be able to send content that a viewer may watch at their convenience."
The FCC sought comment on an American Cable Association petition (CD April 24 p13) to change some emergency alert system rules so small operators without broadband connections have a streamlined waiver process. The commission also sought comment on parts of the January emergency alert system order on Common Alerting Protocol, a new format using the Internet in which all EAS participants, which include all cable systems and radio and TV stations, must be able to get alerts in by June 30. “Nowhere” does the order say “a wireline broadband connection is necessary to comply with the Commission’s requirement,” an FCC public notice released late last week said. “We seek comment whether any presumption in favor of granting a waiver based on lack of physical access to broadband should be limited to an EAS Participant’s lack of physical access to a wireline broadband connection, as ACA requests.” The agency wants to know if it should consider costs of getting broadband in reviewing waiver requests, as the association asked. “If so, how should the Commission weigh such cost in this assessment?” the notice said (http://xrl.us/bm9p2f). “Should such an assessment be dependent on the financial condition of the petitioner? If so, what standard should we use for assessing whether a waiver is warranted based on financial condition? How much and what kind of information about a petitioner’s financial condition should be submitted in support of a waiver request? Should information as to where the waiver applicant is in its EAS equipment replacement cycle be a factor in the Commission’s analysis?” Comments on the notice, which posed other questions on the ACA request, are due, in docket 04-296, 15 days after the item’s publication in the Federal Register, replies 10 days later.