FCC Cracks Down on Misuse of Emergency Alert Signal in Ads

Slaps Viacom, ESPN and NBCU with largest aggregate penalty

When will advertisers learn not to use the broadcast emergency alert signal in an ad? And when will networks realize the Federal Communications Commission is dead serious about the integrity of the EAS system?

A promotional ad for the film Olympus Has Fallen has earned Viacom, ESPN and NBCU the largest aggregate penalty ever imposed by the FCC. Seven Viacom networks, three ESPN networks and seven NBCU networks were fined a combined $1.9 million. Each of the companies admitted running the ad multiple times on multiple networks.

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