Consumer Groups Want Broadcasters to Volunteer for Audio Description Expansion
Broadcasters shouldn’t wait for the FCC to gradually phase in audio description requirements in all markets over the next 10 years, said consumer groups in comments filed in docket 11-43 by Friday’s deadline. Broadcasters should “voluntarily advance the rollout of audio description for people who want and need to access audio description now and not in five, ten, or twelve years,” said the American Council of the Blind. “There is no reason why some communities must wait more than a decade to benefit from technology that already exists and is in use elsewhere.”
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The comments were filed in response to a further NPRM on expanding audio description requirements that proposes requiring audio description in an additional 10 designated market areas each year until all DMAs are covered. The requirements already apply to top-four affiliated stations and some MVPDs in the top 100 of the 210 DMAs in the U.S. The proposed expansion would add 10 DMAs each year starting in 2025, requiring it for all DMAs by Jan. 1, 2035. That phase-in is in line with what’s required in the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, but ACB and the American Foundation for the Blind said broadcasters shouldn’t let the law limit them. “We acknowledge the Commission’s statutory limitations and urge the Commission to expand the rules as quickly as possible to all DMAs,” said AFB. “In the absence of a faster statutory timeline, AFB strongly encourages covered entities to voluntarily pass through audio description as soon as possible on as much programming as possible.” The pace of the rollout proposed by the FCC would leave many large cities without audio description for years, the consumer groups said. “Although broadcasters in Florida’s capital, Tallahassee, will be required to transmit audio description in 2024, many other capitals and major regional cities will wait much longer: Lansing, Michigan, until 2025; Wilmington, Delaware, until 2026; Topeka, Kansas, until 2028; Rapid City, South Dakota, until 2030; and Juneau, Alaska, until 2034,” said ACB.
NAB was a vocal participant during the last expansion of audio description but notably didn’t appear to have commented in the docket by Friday’s deadline. NAB also stayed quiet during the run-up to the NPRM, and that could be an indication the trade group broadly approves of the proposed expansion. “Expanding the markets to which these rules apply” should “bring additional market saturation to entities in smaller markets and expand the reach of programming and advertising,” AFB said.
The proposed expansion won’t mean increased costs for broadcasters because they're already required to have the equipment and infrastructure needed to deliver secondary audio streams for emergency alerting purposes, said ACB: “Because the technology necessary to transmit audio description is already in place, cost cannot be a significant factor in the DMA expansion.”
Expanding to smaller and smaller DMAs could increase the need for waivers and other relief mechanisms for smaller cable operators, said ACA Connects. Smaller DMAs are “often served by small operators with limited financial resources,” ACA said. An order on broadening audio description requirements should include provisions from the previous expansion that allowed entities to request relief due to economic burdens, even though those provisions were never used the last time around, ACA said. Since there haven’t been any such requests in eight years, “adopting the proposals to maintain these relief mechanisms should not be tantamount to opening the door to exceptions that will swallow the rules,” ACA said.