LAS VEGAS -- No nationwide test of the emergency alert system will be held in 2022 to allow Federal Emergency Management Agency to develop a comprehensive survey instrument to gauge the effectiveness of wireless emergency alerts, announced FEMA officials on an NAB Show 2022 panel Monday. “We are planning for that in the early part of 2023,” said Antwane Johnson, acting deputy assistant administrator-FEMA National Continuity Programs Directorate. Gathering data on previous nationwide WEA tests has been difficult, necessitating the survey effort, said Al Kenyon, FEMA customer support branch chief-integrated public alert warning system, in an interview Tuesday.
Monty Tayloe
Monty Tayloe, Associate Editor, covers broadcasting and the Federal Communications Commission for Communications Daily. He joined Warren Communications News in 2013, after spending 10 years covering crime and local politics for Virginia regional newspapers and a turn in television as a communications assistant for the PBS NewsHour. He’s a Virginia native who graduated Fork Union Military Academy and the College of William and Mary. You can follow Tayloe on Twitter: @MontyTayloe .
LAS VEGAS -- FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel kept her cards close on future FCC broadcasting policy during a Q&A at the NAB Show 2022 Monday but pleased many broadcasters by repeatedly emphasizing her admiration for local broadcasting. “Your power is that you’re not like everyone else,” Rosenworcel told NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt and the broadcasters. “What makes you unique is that you’re local.” Her “appreciation for local was apparent,” said Salem CEO David Santrella in an interview after her remarks: “When two parties get together to negotiate something, if one has no appreciation for what the other brings to the table, the negotiation rarely goes well.”
LAS VEGAS -- Broadcasters have made great progress toward realizing the promise of ATSC 3.0, but for the transition to succeed long term they need the FCC to sunset the requirement that 3.0 broadcasts be "substantially similar" to ATSC 1.0 content, said several broadcast executives on multiple weekend panels at the NAB Show 2022.
The 2022 NAB Show is projected to have about 55% of the attendance of the last in-person show in 2019, but broadcasters told us it feels like a step toward the industry getting back to where it was pre-COVID-19. The show runs April 23-27 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The FCC should focus efforts to improve the emergency alert system on the internet-based common alerting protocol (CAP) system rather than the legacy daisy chain EAS, said broadcast alerting equipment manufacturers and cable groups in comments posted this week in docket 15-94. A notice of inquiry sought comments on possible improvements to the legacy system to make it more accessible and increase the amount of text in alerts.
FCC arguments on the agency’s authority to require broadcasters to check would-be lessees against databases of registered foreign agents met apparent skepticism from at least two members of a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday.
Broadcast groups and the FCC will face off in oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday over the agency’s foreign-sponsored content disclosure rules, and broadcast and appellate attorneys told us it's especially difficult to predict how the matter will play out, with rules that were unanimously approved and with the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a backdrop. “There is simply no need -- and it is unlawful -- to force broadcasters leasing to churches, schools and local businesses, among others, to do pointless research as to whether those lessees are foreign agents,” said an NAB spokesperson Friday. NAB is challenging the rules alongside the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council.
The FCC is ramping up its back-to-work plans and will transition to phase 3 of its re-entry plans May 15, said a memo emailed to employees Tuesday and obtained by Communications Daily.
Trade groups want the FCC to continue a flexible approach to accessibility rules, but consumer groups want Congress to expand the agency’s authority to keep up with shifts in technology, said comments filed by Monday’s deadline in docket 10-213 responding to the FCC’s call for feedback on accessibility under the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (see 2202170052). The CVAA requires the FCC to create a biennial report to Congress on progress in technology access.
Noncommercial educational stations that haven’t had the chance to participate in the ATSC 3.0 transition could receive temporary, internet-only channels to allow their content to be received by 3.0 devices, said Pearl TV Managing Director Anne Schelle in an interview.