In a “what were they thinking?” moment, Fox is facing fines for using Emergency Alert Tones (EAS) to promote NFL Sunday.
The EAS is for federal, state, and local authorities to warn citizens of impending danger, as well as child abductions. As such, aside from specific Permitted Uses, the EAS Tones may not be used for any other purpose. The government’s goal is to ensure the public does not get “alert fatigue” and become desensitized to the EAS Tones.
Despite the importance of protecting the use of EAS Tones, Fox Sports downloaded the tones from a YouTube video and proceeded to use a three-second segment to promote NFL Sunday, according to the FCC’s report.
FOX describes the Promotional Segment as a short comedic advertisement for an upcoming game, aired as part of the FOX NFL SUNDAY pre-game show. FOX admits that the Promotional Segment used an approximately three-second excerpt of the EAS Attention Signal commonly used to precede broadcast emergency alerts: two simultaneous tones of 853 Hz and 960 Hz. The three-second excerpt of the EAS Attention Signal was downloaded or recorded from a YouTube video. FOX further admits that its transmission of the Promotional Segment, and the EAS Tones, was not made in connection with any Permitted Use, i.e., an actual emergency, authorized test of the EAS, or qualified PSA.
The clip was broadcast across 18 of Fox’s stations, as well as transmitted to 190 affiliated stations. The company also used the clip on Fox Sports Radio, reaching nearly 15 million listeners.
As a result of the incident, the FCC has proposed fining Fox sports $504,000.