First Fully Captioned (Including Commercials) Super Bowl

February 2011

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and the National Football League (NFL) along with FOX Broadcasting Company, the network airing Super Bowl XLV on Sunday, February 6, 2011, are proud to announce that this will be the first fully captioned national broadcast of the Super Bowl in history, including all national commercials and promotions.

The NAD applauds the NFL and FOX for their commitment to 100% closed captioning of Super Bowl XLV national commercials and network and NFL promotions. This year's achievement marks an important milestone in the quest to achieve 100% television and Internet accessibility.

Millions of people tune into the Super Bowl to watch the exciting battle between two football conference champions, but also want to see the latest creative ads that become tomorrow's topic of conversation. The Super Bowl game has been captioned for years, but not all the commercials were accessible. With the help of the NFL, the percentage of captioned national commercials and network promotions in the last two Super Bowls progressively and significantly increased.

The deaf and hard of hearing community has engaged in an annual ritual of counting the number of captioned commercials and network promotions during the Super Bowl. Consumers are invited to join in this celebration by counting along as we reach our 100% captioning goal. The NAD is interested in learning about any technical issues that affect the pass through of captions to consumer's television sets.

Captioning is an inexpensive way to ensure that the entire televised Super Bowl experience is fully accessible to all. At least 36 million deaf and hard of hearing people in the United States rely on captioning to have the same experience, and many others such as those watching the game in noisy public places also benefit.