Pelmorex wins 10-year battle to launch emergency weather alert service

Pelmorex Communications Inc. won a critical battle today in its decade-long effort to launch a national emergency alerting system. The CRTC approved its application for the national service, but now the tough task begins to convince BDUs and broadcasters to carry its emergency weather information service. The CRTC approved Pelmorex’s request—submitted in 2007—to operate the public weather information system. The company first applied for a licence to operate an emergency weather information system in 1999, but the CRTC turned down the request. Another application in 2004 was also rejected. “This application was a little different because it involved not just public alerting but the distribution of our channel. So in a way it’s kind of a hybrid application,” says Paul Temple, senior VP, regulatory and strategic affairs. The 2007 application contains a request asking the CRTC to allow mandatory carriage of Pelmorex’s channels The Weather Network and Météomèdia on basic cable and satellite offerings. Unlike the two earlier applications, this application doesn’t contain provisions for rate increases. The CRTC decision means Pelmorex will be the national distributer of emergency weather alerts issued by municipal and provincial authorities and the federal government. It will distribute the alerts to BDUs and broadcasters when there is an emergency. Television and radio programming will be interrupted to convey messages of adverse weather conditions. “The national reach of the emergency alerting system will ensure the quick delivery of important safety messages to Canadians,” the CRTC said in a statement. Because carriage of the emergency weather service is on a voluntary basis, Pelmorex has to convince cable and satellite companies and broadcasters to distribute it. In the past there have been fears that some broadcasters may be reluctant to carry the service because of concerns about intrusion into their daily programming. But Temple dismissed such fears saying he expects minimal hitches with BDUs and broadcasters. “To some extent because it’s voluntary I think it’s going to be—to some extent—left up to them. I think everyone agrees that for broadcasters the expectation is that they are only going to display emergency warnings.” The other challenge facing Pelmorex is the question of developing a system that appeals to the various needs and standards of public authorities like Environment Canada, municipal and provincial governments, including meeting the technological specifications of various broadcasters, large and small BDUs, but Temple says he’s still optimistic, despite these potential hurdles. “I think broadcasters, cable and satellite companies would want to .There are financial issues for some of the smaller ones but I think it’s a good service to provide your customers so why wouldn’t they want to?” Two years ago, the CRTC eliminated regulatory barriers to provision of emergency alerts and asked industry to come up with an implementation framework. A working group under Public Safety Canada established a framework but finding a company to provide the alerting system wasn’t easy. “But the next step, somebody has to actually put it together, evolve the computer system and the software system so it’s there,” CRTC Konrad von Finckenstein said in an interview with Tech Media Reports. The CRTC chair said Pelmorex appears willing to implement the alerting system at no extra cost to broadcasters or consumers hence the granting of the licence. “That being said, obviously this is on a voluntary basis, the more broadcasters want to send out an alerting system, in this way they will know this is safe and authorized,” he says. The start-up cost for the emergency alert system is $2 million with annual operating costs averaging another $2 million, according to Temple. The licence is effective starting September 1, 2010 and expires on Aug. 31, 2015. The CRTC expects Pelmorex to submit information on an operational governance structure by September 14, 2009.

Pelmorex wins 10-year battle to launch emergency weather alert service

Broadcast | June 11, 2009

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