“Our main goal should be an EAS system that works,” said FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly said during Thursday’s FCC vote to improve alerting.
He cautioned his colleagues to resist the urge to over-improve and complicate the nation’s national warning system. “We must make sure we don’t make it a burden [for stations] or send so many that the public ignores them.”
He’s referring to proposed rules that seek public input on adding technologies like social media platforms to alerting.
Chairman Tom Wheeler said “It would be a tragedy to wake up too late” to changing technologies when approximately 63% of Americans now get their information from Facebook and Twitter.
The commission also proposed rules to make it easier to perform live code EAS tests (currently, stations need a waiver to do this.) The agency also asks for input on how to improve alerting security, which would make it harder for someone to hack station’s EAS boxes over the Internet.
RBR+TVBR observation: Commissioner Ajit Pai says the commission is asking legitimate questions. Currently EAS messages are transmitted by stations and over the Internet. Pai hopes to get public comment on questions like should the agency keep two systems for redundancy or not?
It’s clear the Dems on the commission are all enthused about including nearly every technology while the Republicans are not; Pai’s glad the Notice of proposed Rulemaking no longer asks questions about Over-The-Top technology, saying the agency’s regs might impact that “nascent” market. O’Rielly says it didn’t go far enough; he objects to asking questions about expanding alerts to include emerging video technology like Hulu or Netflix, saying “making the language vaguer does not hide its intentions.”
The larger question is whether what the agency is asking will result in an EAS that works better, with more participation by state and local emergency managers. For years, broadcasters on the ground have told me EAS is an unfunded government mandate; they buy, install and maintain the equipment — and get pounded for not being able to receive or re-transmit a national alert, while there’s no such repercussions for the government folks who originate the messages, should they choose to skip EAS and go with other alerting methods.
That’s something executives need to keep an eye on since EAS affects the bottom line.
