ESPN, Fox News Exempt from Video Description Requirement, in FCC Draft
Two popular cable channels with lots of live shows are exempt from needing to orally describe action scenes with little dialogue on multichannel video programming distributors, under a draft Media Bureau order implementing video description legislation. FCC and industry officials said Thursday the bureau wants the order voted on later this month, so the rules can take effect soon as required by the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. MVPDs and their associations as well as advocates for the disabled have been visiting the commission to lobby on the item, officials said and filings in docket 11-43 show (http://xrl.us/bk8c2o).
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Fox News and ESPN wouldn’t need video descriptions when carried by MVPDs and for at least 50 hours quarterly of primetime and/or kids’ programming, FCC and industry officials said. Those channels have a lot of what the draft describes as near-live programming. Fox News owner News Corp. and ESPN owner Disney had sought such exclusions. Advocates for those who can’t hear well were upset about that exemption, said a commission official and one such advocate.
A coalition of such groups wants the commission to take an expansive reading of the act. There’s a “need to interpret the law broadly in order to follow Congress’ intent of making television accessible for people with visual impairments,” the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology said in a filing posted to the docket Thursday. “COAT raised concerns about delays in implementation and the need for accessible guides/listings of audio described programming.” Executives of the American Association of People with Disabilities, American Council of the Blind, American Foundation for the Blind, and the National Association of the Deaf had meetings with bureau officials and with aides to Commissioners Michael Copps and Robert McDowell. The official who made the filings (http://xrl.us/bk8dhe) didn’t immediately reply to messages seeking further comment. But another advocate at the meeting told us of the concerns.
Some proponents of video descriptions would prefer all cable channels have them for any programming that’s not live, even if there are so few of the shows that they amount to less than 50 hours a quarter, said such an advocate and a commission official. “There really ought to be a rolling expectation that if you're in the top-five” networks, “they ought to describe those programs” when they're not live, said American Foundation for the Blind Director Mark Richert. He also worries that some who are subject to the new rules will get delays to comply.
Some cable channels must have video descriptions, for at least the equivalent of four hours weekly, when shown on cable, satellite and telco TV. The act required the commission to enact such rules for the top-five rated networks, except for those with primarily near-live shows. The networks that must have the oral descriptions are the Disney Channel, NBCUniversal’s USA, Viacom’s Nickelodeon and Time Warner Inc.’s TBS and TNT, a commission official said. A bureau spokeswoman declined to comment.
The draft order also exempts secondary audio programming from having to carry video descriptions, agency and industry officials said. It’s something that was closely watched by MVPDs including DBS companies and by programmers (CD Aug 11 p12), because they want to be able to use such SAP channels for Spanish audio. The draft says that SAP programming can be used for Spanish audio or for video descriptions, commission and industry officials said. Disney and both DBS U.S. companies made filings this week repeating their requests for the exemption. It was contained in previous video description rules that were thrown out by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2002. Eight years later, the act restored the rules.
"Given the significant number of repeated episodes on non-broadcast children’s networks, if the FCC does not maintain the program-related conflict exemption, Disney Channel would have very little flexibility to air any Spanish-language audio,” Disney said in a filing this week. “Such a result surely would not be consistent with the public interest in serving both the visually-impaired and the Spanish-speaking communities.” The company said it may sometimes show a program with Spanish-language audio and then distribute repeats with video descriptions. DirecTV and Dish Network want the SAP exception “retained,” they said in a joint filing the companies referenced in meetings this week at the FCC.” “Neither the passage of time nor the digital transition has had a measurable effect on the DBS Providers’ technological constraints, and the exception should be retained.”
The bureau also would require the top-four broadcast network affiliates in the 25 largest markets to have video descriptions for at least 50 hours quarterly of programming, FCC and industry officials said. That’s in keeping with the act. By 2016, such stations in the 60 largest markets must air such descriptions, an agency official said: The number could then eventually expand by about 10 per year (CD Feb 25 p6).