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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced on Thursday that it is proposing ESPN be fined for repeated violations of rules about the use of Emergency Alert System (EAS) tones in its promos.
The FCC wants to impose the maximum fine of $146,976 on ESPN “for six apparent violations,” the agency said in a notice.
The violations stem from ESPN using a promo heralding the start of the 2023-24 NBA season that transmitted emergency alert signals.
The FCC claims ESPN “apparently willfully and repeatedly violating the FCC’s rules that prohibit the transmission of, or causing the transmission of, false or deceptive emergency alert system (EAS) codes or the EAS Attention Signal, or simulations thereof (together, EAS Tones).
“On October 20, 2023, October 23, 2023, and October 24, 2023, ESPN apparently transmitted, or caused the transmission of, EAS codes during a promotional segment (Promo Spot) concerning the start of the 2023-2024 National Basketball Association (NBA) season in the absence of any actual emergency, authorized test of the EAS, or qualified public service announcement (PSA).”
The FCC added that it “has warned that the use of simulated or actual EAS Tones for non-authorized purposes — such as commercial or entertainment purposes — can lead to ‘alert fatigue,’ whereby the public becomes desensitized to the alerts, questioning or simply disregarding whether a particular alert is intended to warn about a real, imminent threat or some other cause.
“Moreover, because the EAS codes include operative data elements, the misuse of simulated or actual EAS codes may result in false activations of the EAS that can spread false information or lock out legitimate activations of the EAS. Unauthorized use of the EAS Tones thus undermines the integrity and effectiveness of the EAS and presents a substantial threat to public safety.”
According to the FCC, “ESPN has a history of noncompliance” and was fined in 2015 and again in 2020 for previous EAS tones violations.
In its response, “ESPN admits that ESPN producers ‘likely … obtained the portion of the EAS Attention Signal recordings from a publicly available YouTube video,’ and that its producers, and potentially other ESPN production staff, reviewed the Promo Spot before its initial transmission in 2023.
“ESPN indicates that it was aware that the Promo Spot was transmitted to the public at approximately the time it was transmitted. After the initial airings, ESPN believes that ‘some members of the production team may have discussed the presence of the excerpt of the EAS Attention Signals in the Promo Spot, but they apparently did not comprehend that its use was prohibited.’
“ESPN notes that it ‘is taking this opportunity to revisit its internal review processes and reeducate its personnel’ regarding the FCC’s EAS rules.”