NAB, American Council of Blind Cite COVID-19 in Video Description Disagreement
NAB and the American Council of the Blind point to COVID-19 to justify their opposing arguments about an FCC proposal to extend video description requirements to the top 100 designated market areas, in comments posted Tuesday in docket 11-43 (see…
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2004220065). NAB supports the FCC extending the requirements and tentative conclusions that the requirement is cost effective. It wants a nine-month extension on implementation to better align with broadcaster budget cycles and to give stations time to recover from pandemic financial woes. The requirement would take effect in January; NAB wants that pushed to October 2021. “Any perceived downside” of such an extension is “far outweighed” by the benefits of giving broadcasters “a longer runway,” NAB said. COVID-19 is precisely why the FCC shouldn’t delay implementation, said ACB. The pandemic “created a situation where access to news and entertainment is uniquely important,” said the group. The FCC shouldn’t look at only the pandemic when considering the costs of the proposal, but also the benefits, ACB said. NAB and ACB endorsed an FCC proposal to replace the term “video description” with “audio description,” which ACB said lines up with other federal and international uses.