WASHINGTON—The FCC has levied a fine of $504,000 against Fox for “willfully violating” commission rules on transmitting EAS Tones during regular programming. The violation occurred during an NFL promotional segment aired Nov. 28, 2021.

Fox described the promotional segment as a “short comedic advertisement” for an upcoming game, which was aired as part of the Fox NFL Sunday pre-game show. The promo used an approximately three-second excerpt of the EAS Tone commonly used to precede broadcast emergency alerts: two simultaneous tones of 853 Hz and 960 Hz and the network admitted that the three-second excerpt had been downloaded or recorded from a YouTube video.  

The network acknowledged that it had not obtained permission to air the tones that were broadcast over 18 of its owned-and-operated stations, and transmitted to 190 network affiliated stations nationwide.  It was also broadcast on Fox Sports Radio and on the “Fox Sports on XM” channel on Sirius XM.

FCC warned that such use of EAS Tones when unwarranted could lead to “alert fatigue,” in which viewers will dismiss EAS Tones during actual emergencies. 

“Despite being shorter in duration than the full EAS Tones, the three-second EAS Tone used in the Promotional Segment possessed the same dual-tone frequency, pitch, and timbre as the actual EAS Tones, and was recognizable by viewers or listeners as substantially similar to the EAS Tones,” the commission said. “The Promotional Segment’s “comedic tone” also did not alter or neutralize its overall effect of falsely warning listeners and viewers of a non-existent emergency, as the EAS Tones were clearly audible, cognizable, and appropriated for a non-emergency use.  This manner of appropriation of the EAS Tones is exactly the type of simulation that the Commission’s rules seek to address and prohibit in order to avoid diluting the EAS Tones’ real meaning over time.”

Although fines starting at $8,000 are usually imposed by the commission, it said Fox’s violations were particularly egregious and deserved to be increased, noting that it was “not a minor violation.”

“Despite touting that it is fully knowledgeable and has a policy 'barring the improper use of the EAS Attention Signals,' which was purportedly 'made known generally to employees of Fox involved in the production of programming,' Fox admits that 'all personnel involved in creation and review of the Nov. 28 Segment … lacked full understanding of Fox’s policy against use of EAS Attention Signals.'”  

It also criticized Fox for the way it handled the situation afterwards, noting that the network was required to notify the commission within 24 hours after it discovered its mistake and that just sending an email to the commission was not made in “good faith.” 

Thirdly, it justified the fee increase by pointing out that Fox reported revenues of $4.44 billion in the relevant quarter. “Fox clearly has an ability to pay, and there is nothing in the record that would indicate that the penalty is otherwise excessive,” it said. 

LAS VEGAS--A broad coalition of broadcast television station groups as well as public broadcasters announced at the NAB Show on Monday that ATSC 3.0 (aka Next Gen TV) will be rolled out in 40 U.S. markets by the end of 2020.

Subject to final engineering and required approvals, consents and FCC license modifications, the participating broadcasters have identified the first stations that will convert to ATSC 3.0 service in this rollout. Primary broadcast programming currently broadcast on the stations planning to upgrade will be hosted by other stations in their respective markets.

Station groups involved in the deployment include Fox Television Stations, NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations, Univision, Spectrum Co. (includes Sinclair) and members of the Pearl TV Group, a coalition of broadcasters and manufacturers testing ATSC 3.0 in the Phoenix Model Market.

Top 40 Markets where the first transitioning stations have been identified (ranked by population) include:

• Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX
• Houston, TX
• San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA
• Phoenix, AZ
• Seattle-Tacoma, WA
• Detroit, MI
• Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne, FL
• Portland, OR
• Pittsburgh, PA
• Raleigh-Durham, NC
• Baltimore, MD
• Nashville, TN
• Salt Lake City, UT
• San Antonio, TX
• Kansas City, KS-MO
• Columbus, OH
• West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce, FL
• Las Vegas, NV
• Austin, TX

Work is now underway to identify Next-Gen TV stations in these Top 40 markets (ranked by population), with details to follow in the coming months:

• New York, NY
• Los Angeles, CA
• Chicago, IL
• Philadelphia, PA
• Washington, DC
• Boston, MA
• Atlanta, GA
• Tampa-St.Petersburg-Sarasota, FL
• Minneapolis - St. Paul, MN
• Miami - Ft. Lauderdale, FL
• Denver, CO
• Cleveland-Akron, OH
• Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto, CA
• St. Louis, MO
• Charlotte, NC
• Indianapolis, IN
• San Diego, CA
• Hartford-New Haven, CT
• Cincinnati, OH
• Milwaukee, WI
• Greenville-Spartanburg, SC - Asheville, NC

Additional TV markets where stations have been identified for Next-Gen TV service (ranked by population) include:

• Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News, VA
• Oklahoma City, OK
• Albuquerque - Santa Fe, NM
• Grand Rapids - Kalamazoo, MI
• Memphis, TN
• Buffalo, NY
• Providence - New Bedford, RI
• Little Rock - Pine Bluff, AR
• Mobile, AL - Pensacola, FL
• Albany-Schenectady - Troy, NY
• Flint-Saginaw - Bay City, MI
• Omaha, NE
• Charleston - Huntington, WV
• Springfield, MO
• Rochester, NY
• Syracuse, NY
• Chattanooga, TN
• Charleston, SC
• Burlington, VT - Plattsburgh, NY
• Davenport, IA - Moline, IL
• Santa Barbara - Santa Maria - San Luis Obispo, CA

“America’s broadcasters are on the cusp of a revolution in television,” said Gordon Smith, NAB president. “The many companies invested in TV broadcasting are committed to better television service for both our viewers and for our advertisers.

There was also good news for consumers as Michael Bergman, vice president of technology and standards for the Consumer Technology Association noted that ATSC 3.0-enabled sets and devices are expected to hit the market by 2020.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr advocated for broadcasters to use ATSC 3.0 to innovate and better compete with telecommunications companies.

“It’s important that the FCC authorized broadcasters to start experimenting with ATSC 3.0, giving you the freedom to innovate—a freedom that your competitors and many others in the tech sector already enjoyed,” he said. “And when I think about the ways that broadcasters can use that freedom to innovate, one use case stands out to me: ATSC 3.0 as a new and competitive broadband pipe.”

For a comprehensive source of TV Technology’s ATSC 3.0 coverage, see ourATSC3 silo.

PHOENIX — Five broadcast technology vendors, including Dielectric, Enensys, GatesAir, Harmonic and Triveni Digital, will help television broadcasters in Phoenix make the Pearl TV-led ATSC 3.0 Model Market Initiative a reality.

Stations owned by E.W. Scripps Co., Fox Television Stations, Meredith Local Media Group, Nexstar Media Group, Tegna, Telemundo Station Group and Univision are taking part in the initiative, which will test advanced business models made possible by Next Gen TV.

The initiative also will demonstrate that it is possible to transition to Next-Gen TV while maintaining legacy ATSC 1.0 DTV service.

“We are delighted to announce the first group of technology suppliers who will help make the Phoenix model market a reality,” said Pearl TV Managing Director Anne Schelle in a press release announcing the participation of the companies. “This is just [the] first round of key broadcast equipment vendors who are now at work to create an over-the-air ATSC 3.0 deployment.”

[Read: 2018 NAB Show Marks Next Gen TV’s Arrival]

The Phoenix model market will provide an open test bed for all of the stakeholders in the TV ecosystem, according to a press announcement. Several objectives are planned for the initiative, including: confirmation of basic TV service parameters and performance; determining the appeal of HDR and immersive audio to consumers; assessing TV application features and implementation requirements; testing interactive and addressable ad functionality; and determining consumer device and service appeal, the announcement said.

The initial technology deployment supporting the initiative includes:

• Dielectric UT8D7F-3K filter, a 3 kW low-loss, high-efficiency, eight-pole, UHF bandpass filter;
• Enensys ATSCheduler, an ATSC 3.0 broadcast gateway that encapsulated MMT and ROUTE IP streams into an ATSC 3.0 multiplex, allocating data to different sub-frame and physical layer pipes and managing SFN synchronization;
• GatesAir Maxiva AXTE-3 UHF air-cooled TV transmitter for ATSC 3.0 transmission in Phoenix;
• Harmonic Electra X ATSC 3.0 encoding and statistical multiplexer media processor to deliver multiple HEVC programs over DASH;
• Triveni Digital GuideBuilder XM signaling, announcement and transport generator and StreamScope XM advanced monitor and analysis system, both part of the company’s Broadcast Services Management Platform.

All participating vendors will be exhibiting at the 2018 NAB Show, April 7–12, in Las Vegas. Dielectric will be in booth C2613; Enensys will be in booth SU6521; GatesAir will be in booth N3703; Harmonic will be in booth SU610; and Triveni Digital will be in booth N1427.

For a comprehensive list of TV Technology’s ATSC 3.0 coverage, see our ATSC3 silo.