FCC Issues Order on Emergency Video Description

The FCC issued an order Tuesday mandating video description of emergency video crawls but leaving open the question of waivers for small cable systems and with requirements for small media players, and tablets and smart phones to be addressed in a further notice of rulemaking (http://bit.ly/17pi9uK). “I look forward to reviewing the record that will be compiled on this difficult issue over the next few months,” FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said in a statement on the order. It appeared late Tuesday afternoon, leaving most industry observers still examining it at deadline. Commissioner Robert McDowell, who is leaving the FCC, did not vote.

Several parts of the order that previously had been identified as controversial, such as waivers for small cable operators, were deferred to be considered later under the further NPRM that accompanied the order. Pai said that without such waivers, “there is a real risk that many small cable systems will shut down rather than bear the cost of complying with our rules.” American Cable Association Vice President of Government Affairs Ross Lieberman was positive about the deferment of the waiver question. “Although cable operators do not need to comply for two years, we plan to start work on that waiver petition right away so that we can quickly eliminate the regulatory uncertainty that now exists regarding when and how these systems must comply,” Lieberman said.

According to the NPRM, the Commission will also continue to look into whether MVPDs are covered by the new rule when their subscribers can “access linear video programming that contains emergency information via tablets, laptops, personal computers, smartphones, or similar devices. “ In his statement Pai said he was “pleased” by this and that “any... tentative conclusions would have been premature."

The NPRM also pushes back decisions on the issues of whether the commission should require covered entities to provide customer support services to help the blind “navigate between the main and secondary audio streams” or require broadcast receivers to “detect and decode audio streams marked for the visually impaired” to help customers find them.

The FCC order did defy some expectations. For example, the commission declined to “make any substantive revisions to the current definition of emergency information,” but it did clarify that severe weather is included under that definition. Industry officials had indicated that some leeway on what constituted an emergency would be granted (CD March 29 p4). Commissioner Pai wrote that his vote today “should not be interpreted as an endorsement of the scope of the apparatus requirements set forth in our rules.” Pai said that Tuesday’s order’s inclusion of removable media players in the rule should be addressed by a petition for reconsideration, adding that such a petition is already pending on the IP Closed Captioning Order, which uses similar language.

The FCC order also states that the record doesn’t support taking additional steps to address the particular needs of people with both vision and hearing loss. Although the FCC recognizes the importance of accessibility by individuals who are both blind or visually impaired and deaf or hard of hearing, “we agree with NAB that we do not have a sufficient record on these complex issues to resolve them in this proceeding,” it said.

"We believe the CVAA requires the commission’s emergency information rules to require that emergency information be accessible to that community,” said Blake Reid, an attorney for the Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. “We're disappointed that they didn’t take the concrete steps to do that.” Reid said he’s hopeful that the commission “will take proactive steps to address the needs of the ‘deaf-blind’ community.” The group is pleased that the video description and emergency information rules will cover removable media players, like DVD players and Blu-ray players, Reid said. It also supports the commission’s decision to determine whether devices are capable of playing back video programming rather than looking to the manufacturers'’ intent, he added. -— Monty Tayloe, Kamala Lane