Often such warnings are scrolled across the screen for sighted folks. The SAP channel should be used to transmit the same information to blind people. It would indeed be ironic if the SAP channel were unavailable to warn blind people about an impending emergency because it was already tied up describing the set of some sitcom so that a network could comply with its government-imposed audio description mandate. Although paragraph 30 of the NPRM says that adoption of digital technologies may eventually eliminate the problem of competing SAP channel uses, that capability does not exist today, and the FCC should not ignore this issue in today's television environment. The news exclusion.
News coverage is television's most important public service.
The FCC should work with us to encourage networks and other news programmers to identify orally speakers used on news clips. That might not even need to tie up the SAP channel. But, in any case, it involves a much higher priority for us than mandated audio description. Providing oral output of printed material would also not raise the subjectivity and standards problems inherent in producing audio description programming. We urge the FCC to put its focus on our need for news ahead of entertainment.