FCC Outlines Deadlines for Captioning Compliance

The Federal Communications Commission has issued the deadlines by which various parts of its Closed Captioning Quality Order become official.

That order included mandates for cable and broadcast caption quality, equipment, and various housekeeping items. April 30: Rule revisions on equipment monitoring, the treatment of multicast streams, filing for exemptions, and getting program distributors' e-mails correct. June 30: Rule revisions regarding use of Electronic Newsroom Technique (ENT) for captioning of live programing.

When the Office of Management and Budget approves them: Rules about maintaining records on monitoring and maintenance of the captioning system, informal complaint procedures regarding use of ENT techniques. Jan 15, 2015 or OMB approval, whichever comes first: Rule revisions relating to captioning quality standards and best practices. The FCC voted unanimously Feb 20 to require program creators and distributors to make their best efforts to improve the quality of closed captioning. While there were no quantitative standards, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said this was not an "act it and forget it" item and the FCC wants to remind stakeholders of the upcoming deadlines for compliance.