Leaders from the broadcast, cable and satellite industries have adopted 49 “best practices” recommendations to ensure the continued operation and security of media facilities in times of a national emergency. The FCC’s Media Security and Reliability Council (MSRC) recently adopted the recommendations.
Key recommendations include:
- Media companies should have appropriate physical security at their key facilities.
- Media companies should take appropriate measures to provide backup power capabilities for their key facilities.
- Media companies with local news origination should ensure that they have robust and redundant ways to communicate with external news services and remote news teams.
- All local media in a market should collaborate to increase their collective geographic diversity and to establish redundant interconnections capable of supporting emergency operations.
- Media companies should develop and implement written disaster recovery plans, update them as events warrant, and regularly conduct emergency drills at least once a year.
- Media companies should have the ability to access alternate telecommunications capabilities.
The full text of these and other recommendations are available at www.fcc.gov/MSRC.
