Proposed closed caption quality standards that would require...

Proposed closed caption quality standards that would require content previously captioned using real-time captions to be provided with higher quality captions on rebroadcast would have a “disproportionate impact” on education and public affairs content, said Media Captioning Services in an FCC ex parte filing in docket 05-231. “Closed Caption Quality” is listed as an agenda item for the commission’s February meeting. NCTA also opposes the commission’s “unduly limiting the circumstances in which programmers could use real-time captioning,” said NCTA in its own ex parte. The FCC should “adopt an approach in this proceeding that did not interfere with programmers’ editorial discretion,” said NCTA. NCTA also endorsed the creation of a system of “best practices” for captioning video, a concept echoed by NAB in its own filing. Broadcasters need the ability to use electronic newsroom technique in medium and small markets, NAB said. Electronic newsroom technique involves generating captions using the script, rather than transcribing what is happening on screen. “We propose that the Commission adopt a ’safe harbor/deemed in compliance’ model similar to that implemented in the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act,” said NAB.