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CTA Cautious About Joint Closed Caption Display Setting Proposal

CTA is “concerned” about a joint proposal for closed caption display settings accessibility from NCTA and a number of consumer groups representing the hearing impaired, it said in comments filed this week in docket 12-108. Under the proposal (see 2403190056),…

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caption display settings would be located in one place and accessible by a single button, key or icon, and cable operator apps on third-party devices would respect the caption setting of the host device. “The 2024 Joint Proposal, although a notable development, is limited in nature and does not provide answers to many foundational questions that remain outstanding in the proceeding,” CTA said. The proposal doesn’t specify where caption settings would be stored or how responsibility for captions should be divided among distributors, programmers, app owners, device-makers and operating systems, CTA said. It also doesn’t cover how companies should handle the privacy implications of sharing user caption setting information, the group said. Any eventual FCC rules on the matter “should be appropriately tailored to the fact that different participants in the video-display ecosystem control different elements of the user experience” and should “align responsibility accordingly,” CTA said. Any final regulations “should avoid design mandates, be forward-looking, provide a reasonable compliance period and preserve implementation flexibility” CTA said.