[EAS] EAS and New CC Rules

[Edward Czarnecki]

Such an interpretation of the March 16 Closed Captioning requirements would
be problematic for TV operations, and pretty much unsupportable by
cable/IPTV operations.

Yes, there is an ongoing discrepancy between the voice component of an EAS
message, and the minimal text in an EAS header (non-CAP, that is..).  But
that's an obligation specified an imposed under Part 11 rules, not Part 79
rules.  Part 11 drives EAS.  Part 79 drives accessibility.  A different
proceeding already separated accessibility requirements (at least under
CVAA) from EAS requirements.

Unfortunately, this particular proceeding is silent on that distinction (the
Closed Captioning Quality Report and Order, Declaratory Ruling, and FNPRM of
2014).  

HOWEVER ... also take a look at the FCC's 21st Century Video Accesssibility
Act (CVAA) Emergency Info./Video Description Report and Order & FNPRM
(2013). This FCC order included clarification that EAS and accessibility
rules were separate issues, at least insofar as the CVAA requirements are
concerned.  Here's the full text, verbatim.  Although the scope of this
decision is much, much narrower than the closed captioning requirements, it
would be useful if the FCC extended the following reasoning to the overall
March 16 closed captioning requirements.:

--> "9. We also adopt the NPRM's conclusion that the emergency information
rule in Section 79.2 applies more broadly than the regulations governing the
Emergency Alert System ("EAS"), which are found in Part 11 of our rules.
The EAS rules contain the technical standards and operational procedures of
the EAS, which provides the President with the ability to communicate
immediately to the general public during periods of national emergency, and
which may be used to provide the heads of state and local governments, or
their designated representatives, with a means of emergency communication
with the public in their state or local areas.   The EAS has its own
guidelines and requirements for message content and transmission.  In
contrast, Section 79.2 applies to televised information about a current
emergency affecting the local geographic area, intended to further the
protection of life, health, safety, and property.   We agree with the
National Cable & Telecommunications Association ("NCTA") that the
accessibility of televised emergency information required under Section 79.2
is a separate matter from an activation of the EAS as governed by Part 11 of
our rules.   Accordingly, we clarify that the emergency information covered
by this proceeding does not include emergency alerts delivered through the
EAS, which are subject to separate accessibility requirements requiring the
transmission of EAS attention signals and EAS messages in audio and visual
formats.   However, to the extent a broadcaster or other covered entity uses
the information provided through EAS or any other source (e.g., information
from the National Weather Service) to generate its own crawl conveying
emergency information as defined in Section 79.2(a)(2) outside the context
of an EAS activation, it must comply with the requirements of Section 79.2."

By the way, the CVAA requirement is another FCC deadline, looming on May 26,
2015.  This rulemaking holds that all emergency info (separate of EAS) must
also appear aurally on secondary audio.  We've been getting a lot of
questions from broadcasters thinking that they need to insert EAS on
secondary audio - as stated above, this is not the case - the FCC has stated
that EAS and CVAA compliance are separate matters.  We did create an Audio
Management System (AMS) to address these new CVAA (part 79) requirements,
but an EAS encoder/decoder would address Part 11 requirements.  

But, back to the closed captioning proceeding, if industry thought the FCC
needed to further clarify that EAS is separate from the video programming
scope of the rulemaking, well ... you could ask them.  But I'm not sure
whether you would want to go direct to FCC CGB, or confer with FCC PSHSB
first.

An individual video programmer can always petition the Commission for an
individual exemption from the closed captioning obligations if it can show
that providing captions would be economically burdensome.  The CGB might not
appreciate 30,000+ individual petitions for exemption to closed caption an
EAS message that is already, by the way, handled in a Part 11 crawl.
They're certainly not staffed for it!

Edward Czarnecki, PhD
Senior Director - Strategic Development & Global Government Affairs Digital
Alert Systems / Monroe Electronics
585-765-2254 | fax 585-765-9330