Broadcasters: Concerns About Software-Based EAS 'Overblown'
Allowing broadcasters to replace physical emergency alerting equipment with a software-based system won’t require the FCC to create an entirely new regulatory regime, said NAB and broadcast executives in a meeting with Public Safety Bureau staff last week, according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 15-94. Emergency alert system (EAS) equipment maker Digital Alert Systems has said NAB’s proposal would raise a host of regulatory issues (see 2505230056), but NAB and executives from iHeart, Beasley and Capitol Broadcasting told the FCC that such concerns are “overblown,” the filing said.
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“We do not support an unduly burdensome, bifurcated regulatory regime for hardware versus future software implementations, but rather, a streamlined process for both approaches.” Broadcasters “have strong incentives to maintain the reliability of EAS,” the filing said. In addition, allowing software-based EAS is consistent with the FCC’s “Delete” deregulatory agenda because it would “relieve entities that choose this option of the regulatory and practical burdens” attached to hardware devices.