Charter Communications has agreed to pay a $1.1 million fine to the Federal Communications Commission for violations of emergency alert regulations and has entered into a consent decree with the agency to avoid further violations.
The action stems from a September 2022 FCC order adopting new EAS rules. This order required EAS participants to use text and audio from alerts issued in the Internet-based Common Alert Protocol (CAP) format, if it is available from the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, in preference to the EAS protocol version received over the air.
The FCC order said the CAP-formatted alerts produce higher-quality audio messages, improve the availability of multilingual alerts and ensure that more of the alerts displayed on television screens contain all of the information provided. The changes also replaced the technical jargon that accompanied certain alerts, including test messages, with plain-language terms so the visual and audio messages are clearer to the public.
These rule changes required EAS participants to update their EAS equipment to comply with the rule changes by Dec. 12, 2023.
The FCC said that on Oct. 3, 2023, Charter notified the Commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB) that Charter’s EAS devices at approximately three dozen cable headends, which provide EAS alerts to more than 1 million Charter customers, would be out of service for the Oct. 4, 2023, nationwide EAS test.
Charter said the EAS devices had been taken out of service as part of its process of upgrading in anticipation of the Dec. 12, 2023 date for compliance with the changes to the EAS rules.
Charter had asserted that because it knew it would meet the December compliance deadline and believed in good faith that it had 60 days under the FCC’s rules to replace its noncompliant equipment, Charter did not respond to PSHSB’s inquiries about the problem. Charter also asserts it was given no reason to believe, after it submitted its notification to PSHSB, that the company was not in compliance with the EAS rules, the FCC reported.
Following an investigation, the FCC concluded that Charter’s EAS Devices were not “defective” under section 11.35(b) during the period Charter took them offline and began negotiating a settlement with Charter.
As part of the settlement, Charter agreed to pay the fine and put measures in place to avoid future problems. That consent decree is available here.
