IP Captioning Duties Shared Among Content Creators and Distributors, in FCC Draft
Content creators and distributors would both have duties when it comes to captioning pay-TV and broadcast programming that goes online, under a draft FCC order set to be issued shortly. Video programming distributors (VPDs) like cable, DBS, telco-TV companies and TV stations, and video programming owners (VPO) like studios and other content creators, both have roles. The draft order implementing Internet Protocol captioning rules under the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act requires VPOs to deliver captioned shows to VPDs, said industry and commission officials. They said the order would give programmers and makers of consumer electronics time to come into compliance.
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A technical standard from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers is given safe harbor under the order, FCC and industry officials said. Other interchange and delivery standards, including proprietary ones from the likes of Apple, would also be allowed. If talks between a VPD and VPO over what standard to use break down, the SMPTE standard could be the default one for the distributor to use to convert captions, said an industry official. The Media Bureau order circulated Dec. 23. It must be approved under the disabilities legislation by Jan. 12, the bureau has said. A spokeswoman declined to comment. The bureau had spent considerable time before the holidays working on the order, with MPAA raising First Amendment concerns over putting responsibilities in the hands of VPOs (CD Nov 23 p3). The CEA had sought to have the SMPTE standard as the safe harbor.
The order essentially gives forbearance to CE makers. They get two years in the draft to have video devices capable of receiving IP captions, industry and FCC officials said. Archival Internet content wouldn’t need to be captioned for two years, either, they said. They said deadlines for other types of content to be captioned mainly follow what the agency proposed in a September rulemaking notice, which itself recommended deadlines from an FCC advisory group’s report.
Live programs and those that are mainly produced on the fly get more time to be captioned. Prerecorded, unedited shows must have IP captions within six months of the rules taking effect, while live and near-live programming would have a year to be captioned, FCC and industry officials said. Prerecorded shows that are edited for Internet distribution after airing on TV or being shown on cable, DBS or telco subscription-video services would need to be captioned 18 months after the order’s effective date, they said. Video clips are exempted from the rules. The draft order doesn’t say what’s considered a video clip, but it does caution that the commission will watch for any gaming of the rules, FCC and industry officials said. Such gaming could happen if programming isn’t considered a full-length program but is longer than a typical video clip.
Under the order the VPO is considered the entity that needs to know whether certain programming must be captioned, industry and commission officials said. But program owners and distributors can agree among themselves what sort of content is subject to the rules, in a kind of certification, they said. VPDs would get complaints directly from consumers under the draft order, agency and industry officials said. The commission could also pass on complaints it receives, they said.