FCC Seeks Comments on TV Captioning
October 2010
Editor: The folks at COAT have provided a press release with information
about the pending FCC review of television captioning rules. Here's the
story. The complete FCC document is available at http://tinyurl.com/2fjjmf9
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On October 25, 2010, the FCC issued a new Public Notice seeking comment
on the closed captioning rules that have been in place for the last twelve
years. While the FCC has received over a thousand comments and petitions to
address these older rules, they now intend to refresh and likely issue
updated or modernized captioning rules. Comments are due by November 24,
2010, with Reply Comments due December 9, 2010. The dockets are CG Docket
No. 05-231 and ET Docket No. 99-254. Specifically, the FCC seeks comments on
the following topics:
* whether the Commission should establish quality standards such as
accuracy of transcription, spelling, grammar, punctuation and caption
placement;
* the "pass through" rule, such as on the need for TV distributors to
monitor and maintain their equipment and signal transmissions;
* enforcement tools such as specific fines for violations and in what
amounts and whether video programming distributors (VPDs) must file closed
captioning compliance reports;
* on the electronic newsroom technique (ENT) and whether certain television
Designated Market Areas (DMAs) should no longer have this option;
* whether exemption requests should be filed electronically;
* whether the exemption for TV channels producing revenues of less than $3
million should apply to digital broadcasters that multicast, and whether
each programming stream on a multicast signal constitutes a separate channel
for the $3 million revenue exemption;
* and other related topics.
