On February 16, 2024, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) seeking comment on a proposal to provide multilingual Emergency Alert System (“EAS”) alerts through the use of pre-scripted or template alerts that have been translated into non-English languages. The NPRM was adopted at the February 15, 2024 Open Meeting.
The FCC proposes to require that templates of the most commonly used EAS alerts be created for each of the thirteen most commonly used, non-English languages in the US. These templates would be stored in EAS devices and would be provided as audio files or links to streaming audio. EAS Participants would be required to transmit the template alerts using the template audio and script in the template language that corresponds to the EAS Participant’s primary language (i.e., the language of their programming content). Where an EAS Participant offers multiple channels, it would transmit the template the corresponds to the language of the channel. The templates would be available in the following languages: Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese, as well as in English.
Alert originators would initiate the template alerts in legacy or CAP like any other EAS alert, using the applicable template event code. New template-specific event codes would be added to the EAS protocol for each template alert type, which the EAS device would use to render the template that corresponds to the language of the EAS Participant’s programming content.
Specifically, the FCC seeks comment on the following:
- Feasibility of Multilingual Template Alerts in EAS: The FCC seeks comment on the feasibility of the above proposal, and several other significant points including:
- Which language should be aired in various scenarios, including whether EAS Participants should be allowed to transmit multiple template alerts on channels in languages that do not correspond to their programming content, what the default language should be for channels that air programming not in one of the 13 proposed non-English languages, if there are other languages that should be considered.
- How this proposal should be used with respect to the visual crawl.
- The feasibility of developing and implementing American Sign Language files for template alerts.
- The requirements for storing template audio.
- How to implement this proposal for simulcasting configurations.
- What changes to standards and equipment would be required.
- Whether it is possible to allow consumers to elect the language the alert is presented in.
- Composition of Template Alerts: The FCC seeks comment on whether to delegate to the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau the responsibility for determining which alerts should receive templates, and the process for ongoing updates to the templates.
- Assessing the Benefits and Costs: The FCC expects that the benefits of its proposal would aid 26 million people, and help prevent property damage, injury, and loss of life. Additionally, the FCC estimates that the cost to each EAS participant would be approximately $460.
- Implementation: The FCC also seek comment on several implementation issues, including how long it will take manufacturers to develop, test, and release software updates for this proposal and at what cost to EAS Participants, and whether there would be necessary upgrades or modifications to EAS Participants’ transmission systems.
Comments will be due 30 days after the date of publication in the Federal Register; reply comments will be due 60 days after the date of publication in the Federal Register.
Please Contact Us if you have any questions.