More CE Devices Subject to New IP Captioning Rules Than Some Expected
More consumer electronics are subject to new FCC requirements to display online captions from content originally broadcast on TV or seen on cable, DBS or telco-TV than industry executives expected. They said the order (WID Jan 17 p3) requiring TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors to caption video they put online appears to go beyond what’s required by 2010 disabilities legislation. The order said the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act didn’t say in great detail what type of CE equipment must be covered by Internet Protocol captioning rules.
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It’s too soon to tell if anyone will challenge the rules in court, though petitions for reconsideration seem likely, and a lawsuit is possible, industry and FCC officials said this week and last. They said the rules don’t appear to too broadly interpret the legislation for MVPDs and TV stations. Industry lawyers continuing to review the order that was released Friday afternoon said they haven’t reached a final assessment. “While we're pleased with the commission’s order, we're still reviewing the fine details,” said CEA Vice President Julie Kearney. “We appreciate the commission’s sensitivity to the myriad technical details required to implement the rules.” The MPAA, NAB and NCTA had no comment, nor did a spokeswoman for the Media Bureau, which wrote the order.
The order applies to more types of video devices than last year’s ruling on making products capable of advanced communications services accessible to those with disabilities, some industry executives told us. The order declined to grant blanket waivers to any devices other than display-only monitors, and some types of gear that associations like the CEA, CTIA and Telecom Industry Association had sought waivers for aren’t excused. Removable media players that can play DVD and Blu-ray content, cellphones and other mobile devices are covered by the IP captioning rules, the order said. It rejected “the broad, unspecific requests” made by groups like the CTIA, which said all mobile devices should be excused so the market for such gear can grow further. “The mobile marketplace is incredibly diverse,” the order said.
The order could have hewed to the ACS order and still considered more types of equipment to not fall under the rules, some industry executives said. They said that’s because the act gives the commission waiver authority, an executive said. “Probably as expected the FCC has implemented the rules in a broader way than might have been expected by those who went through the legislative process,” said cable lawyer Paul Glist of Davis Wright. The order appeared to interpret more types of video devices as included in the rules than Section 203 of the act requires as a baseline, he said.
Software included with devices falls under the rules, but not third-party software downloaded by consumers. The order acknowledged the legislation didn’t spell out exactly what devices should be covered. “The CVAA does not define the term ‘apparatus,’ requiring the Commission to interpret the term to determine the exact meaning and extent of the statute’s reach,” the order said. “We interpret this language to apply to hardware (that is, physical devices such as set-top boxes, PCs, smartphones, and tablets) designed to receive or play back video programming transmitted simultaneously with sound and any integrated software."
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., warned against a narrow interpretation of the legislation which he wrote. He and Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., who also wrote the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, had been concerned that industry would try to qualify programming as video clips exempt from the rules when the content really isn’t a clip. “Americans increasingly are accessing news, entertainment and other types of information through online video segments excerpted from full-length televised programming,” Markey said Tuesday. “Such segments should not be considered ‘video clips’ and therefore exempt from IP-captioning requirements.” He “strongly” encouraged the FCC “to closely monitor whether the exclusion of these segments from the captioning mandate is curtailing access to news and other information by Americans who are deaf or hard of hearing.” Pryor’s office had no comment.
Some executives said it will take some time for companies to work out how to comply with the rules. They are phased in and don’t apply to CE devices until Jan. 1, 2014. “We are at the early stages of online video delivery, and the commission recognizes that this is evolving” in the order, said Vice President Ross Lieberman of the American Cable Association. “The processes for how best to do this haven’t evolved, and they seem to have recognized that in not adopting rigid rules for how this should look,” he continued. “How these rules will work or won’t work will remain to be seen as the marketplace develops, and as we get closer to the time of when these rules kick in,” Lieberman said: Video distributors and content owners both have “a lot of things to figure out."
CE makers and MVPDs and TV stations can seek waivers, under the order. Video programming owners and distributors can petition on a “case by case basis for a full or partial exemption,” the order said. They must show how IP captioning would be “economically burdensome.” The order said CE companies can seek waivers “prospectively” before making or selling a device.