DirecTV and Dish Network said they may have to discontinue...
DirecTV and Dish Network said they may have to discontinue The Weather Channel application if they find they can’t comply with requirements imposed in the proceeding on emergency accessibility programming rules. It would be truly unfortunate if the adopted rules…
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“were so onerous that they resulted in the unavailability of emergency weather alerts for everyone,” they said in a joint ex parte filing in docket 12-107 (http://bit.ly/10i0obU). The application “does not have text-to-speech or aural notification capabilities,” Dish said. The companies also said the national feed they receive from The Weather Channel “does not itself include any textual emergency alert information that would be subject to the rules being considered in this proceeding.” The American Cable Association urged the commission to give the requested relief for operators of hybrid digital/analog and all-analog systems. There are some cable systems “that have yet to transition away from an all-analog platform,” ACA said in its ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/YhdNxK). Operators of these systems either have plans to offer some digital services in the future, or no plans to transition “because they see no return on such an investment,” it said. “Absent some significant change in the market or in their regulatory burdens, most of these all-analog systems will likely shut down in the future.” The FCC should refrain from requiring or precluding any particular technology for audio transcription, NAB said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/X4bOmK). The commission shouldn’t require on-site station voiceover announcements for a variety of reasons, including “timely dissemination of emergency information” and “configuration of stations that may be operated in ‘cluster’ or ‘hub’ operations,” it said.