Jimmy Kimmel Live!has been fined $395,000 (£326,000) for mimicking a presidential alert in a skit, a US regulator has announced.
The ABC talk show played out a replica of the emergency alert tone at three different points during the programme, in a joke mocking the warning system on the same day it was officially tested in the US.
During the trial in October last year, more than 200 million American mobile phones received test notifications, which are designed to warn of major threats such as missile attacks, natural disasters and terrorism.
President Donald Trump would be in charge of ordering the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) to activate the warning system, in case of any of the above.
According to the Federal Communications Commission, Jimmy Kimmel Live! broke broadcasting rules in the skit, because TV shows are banned from mimicking the warning system "to avoid confusion when the tones are used, alert fatigue among listeners, and false activation".
While ABC admitted to broadcasting the alert on 3 October 2018, the broadcaster claimed it did so with the belief the "use of the tone was permissible".
ABC has agreed not to broadcast the episode again and said it takes "regulatory compliance seriously and we are pleased to have resolved this issue".
