FCC Waives TV Captioning for 266 Programs
The FCC issued closed captioning waivers to nonprofit programmers the agency decided would face “undue burden” in complying with a Jan. 1, 2006, mandate that all shows be captioned, said Commission officials. In sending 266 letters, each exempting a show, the Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau (CGB) used the same benchmark as a CGB order last week exempting 2 religious programmers from the rules (CD Sept 14 p17), said FCC officials.
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Three advocates for the hearing impaired slammed the FCC for setting a precedent they fear will help other programmers escape the FCC captioning mandate. An advocate told us about the waivers (CD Sept 20 p1), which the FCC didn’t publicize, drawing further criticism from the National Assn. of the Deaf (NAD), Telecom for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing (TDI) and other groups. The public can view the waivers at the FCC’s D.C. hq, agency officials said. There’s no plan to post them online.
The Commission must weigh viewers’ need for captioning against the burden on programmers ill able to afford the costs of scrolling text, an FCC official said: “We're trying to find a balance between filling the needs of the disabled community and not doing anything that would make programming disappear altogether… If captioning were required [in cases where it was exempted], the programming wouldn’t be able to exist at all.”
Captioning live shows can cost $750 hourly, TDI Exec. Dir. Claude Stout said. He thinks programmers should find ways to foot the bill, he said. Nonprofit programmers, such as churches, may pay as little as $50 an hour to caption a tape of an event for airing later, Stout told us: “A local church has the money somehow to put its broadcast on the air… If they don’t want to bother looking for new revenue to cover the cost of captioning, they can take another hard look at their program production budget.” Officials at National Religious Bcstrs. and captioning services didn’t return phone calls.
Members of Congress may examine captioning waivers, which Stout said deaf lobbyists will ask CGB to rethink. Staffers for Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Inslee (D-Wash.) told Stout they would look into the matter, he said. “They're doing the homework, they've heard our concerns, and now they're following up with the FCC,” he said.
In granting the 266 waivers, the agency departed from its past practice of first soliciting public comment, the advocates said. The latest process followed FCC rules, said an FCC official. CGB is considering more waivers, the person added. The bureau last solicited public comment Aug. 4 on a programmer’s waiver request.
Advocates will push the FCC to reconsider the decision, they said. “We will continue to protest the changes in what was once an open process that amounts to a new rule,” Cheryl Heppner, exec. dir.-N. Va. Resource Center for Deaf & Hard of Hearing Persons, said: “In the past, there’s been more transparency.” NAD’s Rosaline Crawford agreed, saying the FCC has “an obligation to ensure a transparent, open and public process… We will not be silent.”