/ 06.07.2011 12:00AM
FCC Levels $16,000 Fine for EAS Violations
WASHINGTON: The Federal Communications Commission Enforcement
Bureau is busy with radio pirates these days, but not so preoccupied that agents
aren’t all over various other rules violations. A Comcast cable system in
Florence, Ala., this week was nailed for not retransmitting Emergency Alert
System messages to “certain customers,” according to the FCC’s Notice
of Apparent Liability. The cable operator was fined $16,000.
The Notice indicates that Comcast “admitted that two classes of customers in
the Florence system failed to receive EAS visual and audio messages for
slightly more than seven months and four months, respectively, in parts of 2010
and 2011.” The omissions were attributed to “employee mistakes in configuring
headend equipment during a digital upgrade.” The operator’s weekly tests during
the period didn’t reveal the error, and it didn’t come to light until January
of 2011, when it was said to be corrected.
Every digital cable system is part of the national EAS network and required to
pass on alerts. One method of compliance involves a message to set-top boxes
that automatically tunes a subscriber’s set to a channel carrying the EAS
message.
The FCC found that the Comcast franchise “willfully and repeatedly” violated
the EAS rules--conditions triggering a fine. The incident was deemed willful
because the encoders and decoders were not properly installed at the headends,
resulting in repeated violations. The base fine for improperly installed or
non-operational EAS gear is $8,000. The fine for Comcast was doubled because it’s
a “multibillion dollar enterprise,” and as such, should “expect the assessment
of higher forfeitures for violations.” The cable operator can appeal the fine.
~ Deborah D. McAdams