[EAS] Cable TV Problems

[Alan Kline]

How does that serve anyone? As we've often discussed, 99.9999% of 
activations are local weather-related incidents. Viewers who are already 
watching a local, news-producing channel are going to be better served 
by letting them stay where they are than by force-tuning them to a 
static slate.

In tornado or flash-flood situations, seconds count. Forcing a viewer to 
use a few of those precious seconds tuning back to where they started 
could have consequences. We already have to deal with the fact of delays 
caused by ATSC encoders; let's not make it any worse.

We also run into the issue of weather warnings that may be issued at one 
end of an ADI. Do the cable systems in the same ADI, but 100 miles away, 
force-tune their viewers? Is the cable system equipment capable of 
distinguishing different situations? Viewers get annoyed enough with 
crawls and cutins for areas distant from where they live. Force-tuning 
them away from their channel for an incident a hundred miles away is 
going to aggravate them even more. In terms of building an effective 
warning system, IMHO it's counterproductive.

ak

On 12/1/2011 2:56 PM, Eric Adler wrote:
> Why not allow a SINGLE force-tune (not a force-and-hold) to a normally vacant channel (heck, it doesn't even have to be encoded with anything but null packets 90+% of the time) along with a "go back" command?  That way viewers are force switched to the message, see it and can choose to ignore it?  Or perhaps just a force-and-hold away from any channel that does not participate (cable-only channels) but allow a user to tune (back) to broadcast stations (and any cable-only channel that does participate)?
>
> Just thinking out loud here...
>
> Eric
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: eas-bounces at radiolists.net [mailto:eas-bounces at radiolists.net] On Behalf Of Alan Kline
>
> Even if it is technically possible, how would anyone ever agree on
> exactly *which* station receives the force-tuned viewers? If I'm running
> a station, I'm certainly not going to agree to allow my viewers to be
> force-tuned to a competitor, nor are they going to allow their viewers
> to be given to me. And everyone is going to insist that they be given
> the viewers who are being force-tuned from ESPN, HBO, or whatever. I
> submit that that's an issue that makes the technical problem look like
> child's play.
>
> I still believe that force-tuning in general is too much of a "Big
> Brother", "nanny state" concept for my taste. Require cable systems to
> run EAS crawls over non-broadcast channels, but if a viewer chooses not
> to learn more about a warning, they do so at their own peril. We can't
> hold everybody's hand...
>
> ak
>
> On 12/1/2011 12:26 PM, Barry Mishkind wrote:
>>
>>           David ... a dumb question from a radio guy:
>>           Is it possible for the cable system to force tune
>>           everyone to a local channel and then leave the
>>           video/audio alone, except for a crawl?
>
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