Emergency Alerts on DIRECTV

[Kevin Dupuy]

I heard awhile back, I think it was on MSNBC, that D* and Dish were going to have to air EAS messages on their feeds in 2007. I believe that it was just the Emergency Action Notification, that thing the the Pres. can use in the event of an attack or other emergency that would affect the whole US, but I don't remember if they said local EAS alerts would be added too. Anybody heard anything?

[Earl Bonovich]

They are already carried on the Locals, if you have your true locals (as it is the same feed).

But as something that overlays regardless what channel you are on...
I have not heard anything.

[Kevin Dupuy]

Yeah, it's that channel override that I believe they meant. I hate how Cox does EAS here, they have an override, but even if you record it on a DVR, it still shows up. I think they should be able to, at least with their ACTIVE enabled receivers, just show an icon at the bottom of the screen like a channel logo bug, and say "EAS Activation for [County/Parish Name], LA, (or whatever state), Tornado Warning. Press RED for more information" or something like that.. but it's interactive system, so it doesn't interrupt DVR recordings.

[Crystal Pepsi Ball]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Alert_System

This says that D*, E*, and any other DBS provider has to offer it as of 5/31/2007.