(Bloomberg) -- The crew at ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show put a simulated emergency broadcast tone into a comedy sketch, and the program went out to 250 TV stations.
The decision might not seem so funny now -- it has cost ABC, owned by the Walt Disney Co., a $395,000 fine from the Federal Communications Commission.
The penalty for the October 2018 broadcast was among several announced Thursday by the agency for what it called misuse of alert tones that are to be used for emergencies, and not to capture audience attention during entertainment.
Other incidents penalized by the FCC included an Animal Planet episode in 2018 that captured the tones coming over phones while filming game wardens, resulting in a $68,000 fine for Discovery Communications Inc. In addition, the FCC cited AMC Networks Inc. for a February episode of “The Walking Dead” that twice included emergency tones, resulting in a $104,000 fine.
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