FCC Viacom ESPN - Officials at the Federal Communications Commission have unanimously decided to fine Viacom and ESPN about $1.4 million for violating its rules by broadcasting a special public warning tone while airing a trailer of the movie Olympus Has Fallen in 2013.
The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is broadcasted in times of emergency and serves as a national warning, which requires all transmission networks to be tuned in to receive an address from the president. The FCC argued that the misuse of the tone has the capacity to create a 'cry wolf' effect, where the significance of the alert system becomes weakened.
"The public relies on this system to prepare them for real emergencies," said Travis LeBlanc, the chief of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau."Our action here sends a strong signal that use of [Emergency Alert System] tones for non-emergency purposes presents a danger to public safety, which we will not tolerate."
Olympus Has Fallen was produced by Millennium Films and stars Gerald Butler, Aaron Echart and Morgan Freeman. The film portrays an ambush on the White House by South Korean terrorists, who are eventually killed by a Secret Service agent.
According to the FCC, both companies have admitted to the wrongdoing when they were fined last year, along with NBCUniversal. NBC has since settled their part of the fine - $530,000 - leaving ESPN and Viacom, who complained that the too much. But the FCC has insisted that both companies pay the fines within 30 days.
Viacom and ESPN are expected to pay $1.12 million and $280,000 respectively. According to the FCC, the difference in the fines is based on the number of channels the tones were broadcasted and the number of times it was aired. While ESPN reportedly ran the trailer on 3 channels about 13 times, Viacom played it on 7 cable networks about 108 times.
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