The Coming Transformation of TV Newsrooms to Include ATSC 3.0 Emergency Alert and Information Distribution

(Paper available in the Proceedings of the 2020 BEIT Conference)

 

 

In many parts of the world, governments play the primary role of providing alerts and information to the media. In the United States, the media -- in the form of broadcast news departments – plays the larger role of acquiring and curating information from the multitude of governmental and non-governmental sources. 

 

US News departments validate this information and present it to multiple platforms, including in most cases, digital platforms. There is no other contender for this role – one would have to be built, and if it was doing only emergencies, the lack of constant use would likely put a largely unused and unrehearsed organization in a critical role at a critical time.

 

The new capabilities of ATSC 3.0 will enable TV newsrooms to more aggressively take the lead in being the live information dissemination source during local  emergencies. 

 

ATSC 3.0 will enable newsrooms to do the following:

 

• Transit video and rich media directly to mobile devices

• “Wake up” a device when an emergency alert is carried

• Enable viewers to adjust which alerts wake up their devices

• Target emergency information to specific areas, and not others

• Target specific devices

• Stream live video and rich media (evacuation maps, instructions to devices

• Coordinate emergency information across all station channels