New System to Harness Power of Mobile Terrestrial Broadcasting to Enable Media Rich Emergency Communications
SEATTLE, Jan. 6, 2012 – The groundbreaking Mobile Emergency Alert System (M-EAS) pilot project gained momentum today when the first commercial television broadcaster announced its support for the next-generation alerting project spearheaded by PBS.

KOMO-TV in Seattle, owned by Fisher Communications, Inc., joins three public broadcasters selected for the project in producing simulated emergency alerts using their Mobile Digital Television (MDTV) signals being demonstrated next week at the 2012 International CES®. Meanwhile, the Mobile500 Alliance reaffirmed its support for the project.

PBS, with funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and LG Electronics, launched the M-EAS project last April. In November, PBS and LG Electronics announced the public television stations selected as test beds for the pilot: WGBH Boston, Vegas PBS (KLVX) in Las Vegas, and Alabama Public Television stations WBIQ (Birmingham) and WAIQ (Montgomery).

The Mobile500 Alliance of broadcasters, which is working to launch Mobile DTV nationally and locally, has included MDTV-based alerting in its “Statement of Principles” for the emerging MDTV industry and specifically endorsed the PBS M-EAS project last spring. Fisher Communications is a founding member of Mobile500 and...