Grant Laird, Jr. Blog

TV Captioning Part 1 - Laws & Regulations

By Cheryl Heppner, 10/23/05

Many people who were unable to attend yesterday’s NVRC workshop on TV Captioning asked for us to share the information. Here’s Part 1 with a quick recap of the laws and regulations related to captioning on TV, followed by a list of challenges we face.

1. The Decoder Chip Bill
This law passed by Congress requires that all TVs with screens 13 inches or larger must have a built-in chip that will decode closed captions. The 13 inches refers not to length or width of the screen but to its diagonal. The decoder chip has also been required in all digital TV (DTV) receivers since July 1, 2002.

2. Digital TV Captioning
The analog broadcasts we’ve had since the beginning of television were to stop in December 31, 2006, but Congress may extend the deadline. In 2007, all TVs 13 inches or larger will have DTV tuners built in. DTV offers a clear picture and surround sound that gives a more movie-like experience. More than 1,400 TV stations across the U.S. are already broadcasting digitally while they continue their analog broadcasts.

Old TVs will still be able to receive DTV signals with an antenna, but will need a converter unless the TV is DTV-ready or "plug and play". If you are a cable or satellite subscriber, you can also get DTV equipment from your provider. You will not have the full picture quality without a DTV, though.

The U.S. is moving to digital TV because it is much more efficient than analog. It will free up our airwaves for many other uses, including the needs of public safety personnel to communicate in emergencies, and it could make possible many new wireless services that we only dream about now. The spectrum used is also better able to penetrate obstacles and achieve wider coverage.

DTV captions can give us new captioning features. We will be able to choose some different sizes of captions, types of fonts, and color for the background. One man who switched to DTV really likes the ability to choose a clear background for captions; it blocks less of what is behind the captions and is great for viewing sports. Some manufacturers are also adding other features, such as the ability to move captions to different parts of the screen so they won’t block something you want to see.

DTV closed caption features were required in all receivers (with some restriction in size) and all DTR tuners, whether or not they are marketed with display screens, since July 1, 2002.

You can get some good DTV information at: www.dtv.gov. I typed in my zip code and immediately got a list of all the stations in my area which are broadcasting digitally. This website also has fact sheets and answers to frequently asked questions.

3. Closed Captioning of TV Programs
Regulations for the closed captioning of TV programs went into effect in 1997, giving an 8-year phase-in. On January 1, 2006, 100% of new TV programs, both digital and analog, must be captioned. There are also regulations for Spanish language programs that currently require 50% of new programs to be captioned, to be increased to 75% in January 2007.

There are, however, several exemptions from the closed-captioning rules:
- For those of you who have contacted us to express your dismay that those old Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie or other programs aren’t captioned, it may be because of the "pre-rule" exemption.

"Pre-rule" programs are ones that were first shown on TV before January 1, 1998 (when the closed captioning regulations took effect). For programs with digital captions, pre-rule programs are ones first shown on TV before July 1, 2002. For both these pre-rule programs, the regulations are:
Until January 1, 2008 - 30% must be captioned
After January 1, 2008 - 75% must be captioned

For pre-rule Spanish language programs:
Until January 1, 2012 - 30% must be captioned
After January 1, 2012 - 75% must be captioned

Other exemptions are:
- Most programs shown from 2 am to 6 am local time

- Locally-produced and distributed non-news programs with no repeat value, such as parades and school sports events

- Commercials of five minutes or less

- Instructional programs produced locally by public TV stations for use in grades K-12 or postsecondary schools

- Programs in languages other than Spanish and English

- Programs shown on new networks for the first four years of the network’s operations

- Public service announcements and promotional ads of less than 10 minutes

- Programs by providers with an annual gross revenue under $3 million (but these programmers must still "pass through" the captions of any programs that already have them)

Special Requirements for News Programs
ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and their affiliates must realtime caption their news in the "top 25" television markets. The country’s top 25 markets are:
AZ: Phoenix
CA: Los Angeles, San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose, Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto, San Diego
CO: Denver
DC: Washington, DC
FL: Tampa/St.Petersburg/Sarasota, Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando/Daytona Beach/Melbourne
GA: Atlanta
IL Chicago
MD: Baltimore
MA: Boston
MI: Detroit
MO: St. Louis
MN: Minneapolis/St. Paul
NY: New York City
OH: Cleveland
OR: Portland
PA: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia
TX: Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston
WA: Seattle

Non-broadcast networks (such as cable) which serve at least 50% of households subscribing to video program services must realtime caption their news.

All others may caption with electronic newsroom technique (ENT). This captioning is pre-scripted and as a result causes gaps when the program has live news updates, breaking news, ad libs, live interviews, sports and weather updates, and field reports.

News programs must follow the same captioning timeline as other programs, which means that 100% of news must be captioned after January 1, 2006.

4. Visual Presentation of Emergency Information
Visual presentation of emergency information is required of broadcast, cable, and satellite TV providers.

Emergency information is defined as any information that is intended to protect life, health, safety or property.

Some examples of things that qualify as an emergency are:
- Dangerous weather — hurricane, tornado, flood, earthquake, tidal wave, icing conditions, heavy snow, widespread fire, warning and watch of impending change in weather
- Dangerous situations — widespread power failure, discharge of toxic gas, industrial explosion, civil disorder, school closing, changes in school bus schedules resulting from conditions.

Information that must be presented visually if it is provided audibly:
- Specific details about the areas that will be affected by the emergency
- Evacuation orders, detailed descriptions of areas to be evacuated, specific evacuation routes
- Approved shelters or how to take shelter in one’s home
- Instructions on how to secure personal property
- Road closures
- How to obtain relief assistance

Note that this requires visual information but not necessarily captioning. Theoretically any effective means of providing all this information could be used, including holding up signs.

5. Emergency Alert System
The Emergency Alert System is a nationwide broadcast system for use in national or large-scale disasters. It was designed for use by the President of the U.S. and has never been used, not even on 9/11. It can be used by national, state and local authorities. The EAS has the ability to send emergency information by broadcast, cable, and wireless cable systems. This system is required to carry national security broadcasts initiated by the President of the U.S, but is not required to carry alerts and messages initiated by state and local authorities. It basically is intended to take over the airwaves for important emergency information.

The Challenges of the TV Captioning Laws & Regulations

1. Laws and Regulations
- Are meaningless unless they are monitored and enforced
- Don’t always cover everything we need
- Aren’t always interpreted the way we intended them to be

2. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
This federal agency has oversight of all the captioning-related laws mentioned in this presentation. Its is influenced in its ability to be responsive to our needs by politics and funding

3. Decoder
- TVs smaller than 13 inches, especially ones with battery power, do not usually have caption capability
- Americans are moving to small wireless devices that have phone, pager, TV, and Internet capability — but not necessarily caption capability

4. Digital TV
- When shopping for a digital TV, it can be difficult or impossible to test captions in stores — sales people know little or nothing about captioning features
- Consumers are reporting many problems when they get equipment home — service people don’t understand what captioning is, how to connect devices, and how to operat the caption features
- Some auxiliary equipment such as VCRs, DVD players, and digital recorders like TiVo cause problems with recording, decoding or displaying captions

5. Closed Captioning
- Broadcasters, cable providers, and satellite providers do not monitor their captioning
- The FCC has not required reporting on the progress of TV closed captioning and has never fined a provider for not meeting its obligations or for poor quality captioning
- There is a shortage of qualified captioners
- Consumers frequently experience problems with spelling, missing captions, garbled captions, etc.
- Major networks are doing well with the amount of captioning, but cable is lagging behind
- "Electronic Newsroom Technique" gives poor quality news

6. Visual Information in Emergencies
- Broadcasters still quibble about the definition of emergency
- Consumers can’t write a good complaint about what information is missing when they don’t have captions to know what’s being said in the first place
- FCC investigations take a lot of time; most actions were taken right before the deadline
- Broadcasters are beginning to lash back at the FCC for doing its job

7. Emergency Alert System
The system is not often used in many places; how do we know that it will be effective?

Another Challenge:
More and more news is moving to the Internet, with video clips that are not captioned. There are no regulations to cover captioning of the Internet. Congress or the FCC must decide whether the Internet is an information service or telecommunications service. The FCC has no jurisdiction over information services, and thus would have no authority to regulate and enforce captioning.

One hopeful sign is that "data mining" could be our friend. New software can search a video if it is closed captioned, just like you search for text data on the Internet. This is a powerful and exciting new tool that may make captioning highly desirable and help us avoid a long struggle to make captioning widespread on the Internet.

© 2005 by Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons (NVRC), www.nvrc.org.

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