Wheeler Could Move to Require IP Clips Be Captioned, or at Least Start NPRM, Say Stakeholders
The FCC in the next few months may look to require that Internet video clips be captioned, whether by a draft order requiring it or a rulemaking seeking comment on such a rule, said agency, industry and public-interest officials in interviews Wednesday. They said that’s even though all industry filings opposed new rules in initial comments that were due Monday (see separate report below in this issue) (http://bit.ly/N458Bf) on a Media Bureau public notice (http://bit.ly/MtDRaK) on whether to require such captioning (CD Feb 5 p10). Chairman Tom Wheeler has signaled he’s interested in acting on disabilities access issues, and ensuring short videos online have captions so they can be understood by the hearing impaired could be an issue drawing his attention, said stakeholders opposed to such a requirement, those favoring it and those without policy stances.
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They said Wheeler, other FCC member offices and lobbying for now is focusing on a draft order, declaratory ruling and further rulemaking notice on quality of linear-TV captioning. Those items are on the tentative agenda for the Feb. 20 FCC meeting (http://fcc.us/1bvOfIq). The texts would address “the quality and technical compliance of closed captioning on television programming to ensure that video programming is fully accessible to individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing,” said the gathering’s tentative agenda released Jan. 30, the day of the last monthly public meeting of commissioners. Industry and public-interest officials said they're still learning what’s in the items.
The documents will describe best practices for caption quality, which has been the subject of complaints by the hearing impaired for years, said Assistant Clinical Professor Blake Reid of the University of Colorado’s Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic, which is representing Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired (TDI) on Internet Protocol captioning. “A lot of the details are still in flux” on captioning quality, he said. Reid said he is “optimistic” the final cuts will be favorable to those seeking high captioning quality. TDI and six other groups supporting IP captions found 54 percent of 500 videos from video program distributors and video programming owners sampled online were uncaptioned, they said in a filing posted Wednesday to docket 11-154 (http://bit.ly/1irKuF8).
DirecTV, the Digital Media Association, NAB and NCTA opposed requiring such captioning, saying the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) didn’t call for it. In requiring previously that other clips from TV stations and subscription-video be captioned when put in IP, “the Commission determined that the IP closed captioning rules initially should apply to full-length programming and not to video clips,” said the bureau public notice. “But it also stated its belief that Congress intended ’to leave open the extent to which [video clips] should be covered under this section at some point in the future.'” That dovetails with what advocates for such rules think, they said in interviews, while opponents said in filings CVAA doesn’t pave the way for such rules. A bureau spokeswoman declined to comment.
Bolstering hopes the FCC may require such captioning is a Dec. 6 letter from CVAA authors Sens. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., said the advocates in interviews Wednesday. “When we wrote the CVAA, it was our intent that full-length programming that has been broadcast on television with captions after the effective date of the Commission’s rule be shown with captions when the programming is delivered using IP even if such programming is shown on the Internet in segments and even when some but not all segments are posted online,” said the letter (http://bit.ly/1brOsJu). “Their weighing in is important, since they were key sponsors of the legislation, and they pointed to some important legislative history,” said Eva Seidelman, a lawyer and researcher at Public Citizen, which backed such rules (http://bit.ly/1kVdlmR). “Even if there is a disagreement on what was explicitly intended in the act,” CVAA’s spirit and the intent of legislators like Markey and Pryor show they wanted such rules, she said. “Clearly, the market is not providing a solution for people, and I think the FCC will change the rules so that it does not exempt online video clips.” Public Citizen got involved because a hearing-impaired member of the group, which has about 300,000 members and supporters, raised the issue, said Seidelman.
The bureau hasn’t made any decision on how to proceed, and it doesn’t appear Wheeler has made a decision, either, said agency, industry and public-interest officials. They said the bureau doesn’t have a full round of comments to review, with replies due next month. Action may occur after the Feb. 20 meeting where caption quality issues are getting a vote, said Reid. IP video clip captions are “kind of the seesaw that the chairman talks about” of regulation or no regulation, “and we think it’s ready to swing” toward rules, said Reid. “We're feeling pretty optimistic that they'll address the issue after that clears the decks” of the linear quality items, he said. “That’s the primary focus of everyone on our end and in the industry.” (jmake@warren-news.com)