[SBE] EAS issue

[Gary Blievernicht]

By "local gov't cable-only" do you mean a Public-Educational-Governmental (PEG) channel on a commercial cable system?

If so, it is the responsibility of the Cable system to provide EAS alerts on all of their channels, which would include the PEG channels. (requirements of cable systems vary based on size of the system) 

There may be a separate emergency alert announcement system incorporated into a franchise agreement, but that is not "EAS"  

There is no provision in the current EAS for RSS feeds, and we'll have to wait a while longer to see what FEMA comes up with CAP.  Seems that the RSS feed, if FEMA/CAP compliant, might be able to feed into such a system.  That would seem to be something for local and/or state emergency communications committees to address.  

Depending on state laws, the local franchise authority might be able to get the local cable systems to implement something non-EAS that would have the RSS feeds you mention, but I expect there would be a strong push-back for a unique solution.  Even then, the announcements would only be available to viewers watching cable.