Emergency Alerts Soon To Go Through Netflix and Spotify To Alert the Public
It is clear that a large number of people are now glued on to online streaming services than regular cable TV. And though that is a good thing, at least for the consumers, there is one con. The government is known to release emergency alerts when there is a bad situation coming up. May it be a missile, tsunami or something else of that kind.
But a large number of people who see streaming movies or shows miss out on that due to the fact that emergency alerts are released only via cable television and the radio. And these are two things that are not used that much today. So, is there a risk of these announcements being missed?
New Bill
Senators in Hawaii and South Dakota seem to think yes, and they want to change that. A new bill called the Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement is reported to explore the various new options of sending broadcasting emergency alerts to online streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify, among other streaming services.
But when coming to emergency broadcasts, one can’t just miss Hawaii. Famous for the mistaken emergency broadcast a while ago, the government faced a lot of criticism. The government faced a lot of criticism for the faulty message, and this seems like a comeback for the government.
The bill addresses various other issues too like the disable feature that is available in phones, from which these alerts can be disabled. The bill also assures that a better system also will be built up for reporting false alarms, and also to figure out what went wrong with the release of other false alarms. The bill also assures that the system would be better equipped to prevent false alarms, and if a false alarm is also released, to retract them.
Better Option
Sending emergency broadcasts to such streaming services sounds reasonable and obvious. With the rising number of people glued to online streaming services, sending emergency broadcasts would not be reaching anyone.
Another factor that needs to be fixed is the system of sending emergency broadcasts. The system should be strong enough to handle real emergency situations, and also to check for bugs from time to time and not warn the country about missiles that do not exist. Interrupting shows and entertainment to warn against fake disasters is something that no one wants to happen.
And so if this process gets improved then emergency situations can be handled much easier, and the public can be notified in a much more seamless way.
