While sizeable, it pales in comparison to the numerous penalties imposed on The Howard Stern Show over the years – between 1990 and 2004, the FCC issued fines totalling $2.5 million to radio licensees for airing material it deemed indecent from the program, the highest amount of any American media serial in history.
Popular US talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! has been fined $395,000 for mimicking Presidential Alert in a skit, the US Federal Communications Commission has announced.
The ABC program played an imitation of the emergency alert tone at three different points during a 3rd October 2018 broadcast, mocking the warning system on the same day it was officially tested in the US – over 200 million Americans received test notifications, which are designed to warn of major threats such as missile attacks, natural disasters and terrorism, on their mobile phones. “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed,” the alert said.
The President is in charge of ordering the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) to activate the warning system, in the event such a catastrophe erupts.
The FCC found Jimmy Kimmel Live! broke broadcasting rules, as TV shows are banned from mimicking the system “to avoid confusion when the tones are used, alert fatigue among listeners, and false activation”.ABC admitted to broadcasting the alert, but claimed it did so in the belief “use of the tone was permissible”, and has agreed not to broadcast the episode again.
ABC isn’t the only US cable network in trouble – AMC was fined US$104,000 after its show The Walking Dead used simulated EAS tones in two scenes in February, while Animal Planet’s series Lone Star Law also misused the emergency alert system tone, receiving a penalty of US$68,000.
In addition to the fines, all offending companies agreed to “a strict compliance plan” to ensure those alerts will not be played again when there’s no emergency. All offending networks have 30 days to pay their fines.