FCC Likely to Okay DTV Closed Captioning Order, Issue NPRM
Commissioners are likely soon to approve an order that clarifies a requirement that digital TV stations must pass along to viewers all captions from programming providers, said several agency officials. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has said he wants a vote on the order at or by the Nov. 4 meeting (CD Oct 15 p4) and put it on the preliminary agenda. But members intent on addressing higher-profile items are likely not to wait until the meeting to approve that order and another to allow use of distributed transmission systems (CD Oct 23 p4) for digital broadcasts, the agency officials said.
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FCC officials on Friday addressed worries voiced by a coalition about the DTS order, which would let broadcasters dot their markets with smaller antennas to better serve them, said a lawyer for the group. Media Bureau Chief Monica Desai and an aide to Martin told Media Access Project Senior Vice President Harold Feld that the order will take white spaces spectrum into account, Feld told us. Earlier, Feld said he feared DTS would leave less spectrum for portable unlicensed broadband devices, on whose use the FCC will vote Election Day. Officials at the New America Foundation and Free Press, also spectrum coalition members, declined to comment or didn’t reply to messages.
“My feeling is that they've heard our concerns and the order will reflect an appropriate balance that the intent is to maintain the status quo of viewers rather than expand the reach of broadcasters,” said Feld after speaking with Martin’s aides. “NAB is generally supportive of the item,” said a spokesman for that group. No FCC members other than Martin have approved the order, agency officials said. A commission spokeswoman declined to comment.
Martin also is the only member so far to vote on the closed captioning order, which would require broadcasters to pass through to viewers all captioned programming provided by other sources, agency officials said. The draft seems to exempt stations with annual revenue of less than $3 million from having to caption shows they produce, they said. Such stations now are excused from captioning their own analog programming, they said. Unclear to some at the agency is whether the draft would exempt all multicast digital streams bringing in less than $3 million apiece in yearly sales, they said.
To address that issue, commissioners may ask Martin to carve out from the order the section on exemptions and begin a rulemaking seeking comment on the threshold’s application to multicast channels, agency officials said. A notice on exemptions and an order on captioning passthrough would satisfy many in the deaf and hard of hearing community, said Karen Strauss, a lawyer for Communication Service for the Deaf. “The outcome of this could determine for the foreseeable future when these channels will have to provide closed captioning,” she added. “We're very concerned about not having this made into a final order at this point. We think it needs to be a notice of proposed rulemaking. I think that’s the way the FCC is leaning.”