Approval of emergency alert services may not lead to immediate rollouts

Although the CRTC recently proposed amending the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations to facilitate broadcast-based emergency alert services, and even encouraged some broadcasters and BDUs to begin implementing those services, it’s hard to say when and in what form they might appear.In any event, Canadians expecting an emergency alert service from Weather Network and Météomédia parent company Pelmorex Communications Inc. – perhaps the most obvious provider of such a service, and an early favourite judging by first-round interventions – likely shouldn’t hold their breath. "It’s just not clear to us what, if anything, is going to happen," says Paul Temple, Pelmorex’s senior VP, regulatory and strategic affairs. "We’re a little in limbo now."While Pelmorex’s proposed licence amendments enabling it to provide its proprietary All Channel Alert (ACA) service were approved, the commission decided against mandating that BDUs use ACA, which alters Pelmorex’s plans substantially. "We’re a little disappointed in the fact that cable companies aren’t required to participate because that was a critical element of what we and a number of interveners ," says Temple. "Unless you have kind of a critical mass… it’s going to be hard to get things going."Pelmorex had planned to make ACA available to more than nine million homes within four years of regulatory approval and had hoped to recoup a mandated 8 cents per subscriber for the service. However, the fact that the CRTC has left carriage and price open to negotiations between Pelmorex and the BDUs has derailed the broadcaster’s proposed rollout schedule. When Temple spoke with Canadian Communications Reports Pelmorex had not thoroughly reviewed the decision, but he wasn’t optimistic. "The negotiations could take years so I don’t know," he says. "The things that we can do ourselves, we’re moving ahead full speed ….Where we’ll have to work beyond things we can control, I just don’t know what we’ll do and what the timetable will be." But the prospect of emergency alert services in Canada isn’t totally contingent on ACA. On February 28 the CRTC also endorsed both a proposal by CBC to distribute emergency alerts using its radio transmission facilities and offering it to BDUs on a voluntary basis, and a proposal by Bell ExpressVu to implement alerts over its DTH network. As well, the commission’s proposed amendments to the broadcasting distribution regulations will allow BDUs to insert alert messages on all channels without obtaining prior agreement from broadcasters and networks."We’re pleased with the decision," says Bell spokesperson Jacqueline Michelis. " sort of gives us time now to work with the various groups and bodies to map out a plan for offering emergency alerts." Indeed, the CRTC will give the voluntary approach two years before considering whether to implement additional measures. Michelis says whether ExpressVu implements emergency alerts itself or works with another organization is something the BDU will figure out over the coming months.Rogers Cable Inc. already seems to have its mind made up on how it might implement an emergency alert service across its cable footprint. "We sure that you need any third party to facilitate this process," says Rogers’ VP of regulatory Ken Engelhart. "The alerting information itself comes from the government. That information has to be taken, checked, applied to the area in question, and then put through a character generator and put up on television screens. So what exactly do we need a third party for?"What Rogers is less clear on is how it would manage an alerting system without being overly intrusive to cable subscribers, Engelhart says. "Do you only want to let people know if there’s some very weather coming…like a tornado?" he asks. "What about an ice storm? A lot of this is art more than science."Like ExpressVu, Rogers is pleased the commission didn’t make the Pelmorex system mandatory for BDUs. Even though Rogers didn’t apply to implement emergency alerts itself, as ExpressVu did, the proposed amendments to the broadcasting regulations mean it doesn’t have to. And while Rogers would clearly want to provide an all-channel alert system to counter an offer from one of its main competitors, Engelhart says it’s more about public service than competition. However, he adds that Rogers would look to make its alerting service as comprehensive as possible."We don’t see this as a cable issue alone," says Engelhart. "We think a proper alerting service should probably involve television, radio, wireless phones, the Internet, and telephones." Not coincidentally, Rogers offers all of these communications services, putting it in a position to bring a leading offering to the market. Engelhart adds: "We want to do something and I definitely think we do want it to be cross-platform, so time will tell if that makes us a leader or not."However, the president of the Ontario Association of Emergency Managers Alain Normand is unhappy with the direction the CRTC took. The OAEM worked with and supported Pelmorex on its application and had hoped the commission would mandate ACA to reduce the confusion. "I’ve got a message, I send it to one place and that’s it, I know it will go to every television in that area where the emergency is occurring," he says of the prospect of one nation-wide alerting system. Normand feels that by leaving the implementation of emergency alerting services voluntary, the CRTC has only increased bureaucracy and confusion: "We need to negotiate all sorts of things...on a community-by-community basis, and it’s a very long process – very difficult, a bit haphazard, with little chance of success."

Approval of emergency alert services may not lead to immediate rollouts

Broadcast | March 16, 2007

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