WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Federal Communications Commission Enforcement Bureau said Paramount Global is being fined $244,952 for violations of emergency alerting rules and the company has entered into a consent degree detailing how it will work to avoid future violations.
The fine and decree follow an FCC investigation into allegations that various operations owned by Paramount improperly transmitted Emergency Alert System (EAS) codes, the EAS attention signal or recordings or simulations during two TV programs and one radio program.
In the consent decree, Paramount admitted violations involving the syndicated “Entertainment Tonight” broadcast on Oct. 25, 2023 and the CBS News Radio “On the Hour” newscast on June 6, 2024. It also admitted certain facts regarding an episode of “Young Sheldon” broadcast by the CBS Television Network on May 18, 2023.
The FCC has rules against broadcasting emergency alert tones outside of emergency alerts because their regular use in programming might desensitize viewers and listeners, causing them to ignore actual emergency alerts.
The FCC issued several significant fines regarding a variety of EAS rules in 2024, against such companies as ESPN and Charter Communications.
The investigation into CBS News Radio began after Paramount emailed the FCC on June 7 indicating that a news story concerning an event at Universal Studios “may have improperly transmitted or caused to be transmitted an EAS tone or simulation thereof,” the FCC said. The company said a top-of-the-hour newcast airing on 400 CBS News Radio affiliates at 4 p.m. (ET) on June 6 contained about three seconds of the EAS attention signal. Most affiliates carried the newscast, the FCC said.
The investigation into the daily syndicated entertainment newsmagazine “ET” was also prompted by an email from Paramount. “A brief excerpt of the broadcast EAS tones, lasting approximately one second, appears to have been aired during the October 24, 2023 episode of the program Entertainment Tonight,” the company reported.
The FCC also said it became aware the May 18, 2023, episode of the sitcom “Young Sheldon” airing on the CBS Television Network “might have included an improper use of EAS Tones,” prompting an investigation. The EAS tones occurred during a scene in an episode titled ”A Tornado, a 10-Hour Flight and a Darn Fine Ring,” in which some of the show’s characters are driving in a car in severe weather and become aware of an impending tornado, the FCC said.
The full order and consent degree can be found here.
