The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is now inviting public comments on Closed Captioning of video clips delivered by Internet – before January 27, 2014 – since a coalition of consumer groups has filed a petition for reconsideration of this issue.
The FCC has already mandated that a great deal of video programming on the internet must be closed captioned per the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA)
If it’s determined that consumers who are deaf or hard of hearing are denied access to critical areas of programming, such as news, the FCC may add a requirement to provide closed captioning on all video clips.
Comments can be filed here on or before January 27, 2014.
The FCC is asking for information and comments on topics like these:
- How have consumers been affected by the absence of closed captioning?
- What are the costs-benefits of requiring closed captioning of IP-delivered video clips?
- If the Commission imposes closed captioning obligations for IP-delivered video clips, should the requirements apply to all video clips, or only to a subset of such clips?
- What is the extent to which the industry has voluntarily captioned video clips?
To read the FCC’s call for comments and to submit your comments click here. You can also gain context via this excellent article about captions for video clips
Remember, the FCC deadline for public comments is January 27, 2013. Reply comments may also be filed before February 26, 2014.
If you have questions about how FCC regulations may effect your videos, please contact us at sales@dotsub.com
And, if you want to shout at the FCC about “Net Neutrality” as well, you can see what they say here and provide feedback here.