GATINEAU – Scolding the broadcast industry for not heeding its warnings two years ago, the CRTC approved Pelmorex Communications’ plan to make emergency alerts available to all broadcasters across the country.
“The Commission recognizes that The Weather Network and MétéoMédia make a unique contribution to public safety and are exceptionally important to the achievement of Canada’s broadcasting policy,” said the Regulator’s press release today. Pelmorex owns and operates the English and French language weather nets.
So, under the 9(1)(h) portion of the regs, which stipulate that if a TV service is deemed to be of “exceptional importance,” it would qualify for the preferred carriage status, which The Weather Network/MétéoMédia has attained with this decision. Being mandatory on digital basic will ensure The Weather Network’s current monthly wholesale rate of 23 cents and appropriate funding for the alerts.
In a decision back on February 28, 2007, which Cartt.ca reported on, the CRTC removed regulatory obstacles to the provision of emergency alerts to Canadians. It stated that if, in two years’ time, it became apparent that a voluntary approach is not adequate, it might consider additional measures to ensure that Canadians receive timely warnings of imminent perils.
Since then, the industry has done precious little.
"In our 2007 decision, we gave two years to the industry to come up with a solution", said Konrad von Finckenstein, chairman of the CRTC, in this morning’s press release. "While the industry made progress in developing specifications and standards, no national emergency alert aggregator has been identified or established. Consequently, we are living up to our promise and are designating Pelmorex as the national emergency alert aggregator and distributor.”
Today’s decision in no way impedes the efforts of federal, provincial and municipal governments to implement a national public alerting system, but rather complements their efforts, says the Commission.
In its application (we covered the April hearing here), Pelmorex proposed to act as the national aggregator for emergency alerts issued by municipal, provincial and federal authorities. The alerts would be made available to participating cable and satellite systems, television and radio broadcasters, and other media outlets. When there is an alert, programming would be interrupted in order to relay messages to Canadians. The national reach of the emergency alerting system will ensure the quick delivery of important safety messages to Canadians.
The Commission will review the company’s progress in implementing the emergency alerting system next year, at the same time as it considers the licence renewal applications for The Weather Network and MétéoMédia. The company said during the hearing the system could be up and running in 2010.
Cable and satellite companies will have to carry these channels from September 1, 2010, to August 31, 2015. Afterwards, The Weather Network and MétéoMédia will have to submit a new application to the Commission.
Vice-chairman, telecom, Len Katz, opposed granting 9(1)(h) status to Pelmorex’s specialties.
“The evidence (presented at the hearing) also showed that this service can be offered as a free standing product. Indeed, much discussion revolved around the timeline for the introduction of such a service by Public Safety Canada. In addition, other private companies came forward with offers to provide such a stand-alone service,” writes Katz.
“Again, in this case, I say no.
“Firstly, (Pelmorex’s emergency alert service) will have the ability to be a stand-alone application and can therefore be appended to any related programming service. I do not believe the Commission should create a precedent whereby a profitable programming undertaking is permitted to link two services together in order to achieve mandatory carriage where the underlying service alone (representing the substantive element of the service) does not qualify for such mandatory distribution.”
– Greg O’Brien
