Hot News on Captioned Movies

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NVRC News - May 10, 2010

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Hot News on Captioned Movies

By Cheryl Heppner, 5/10/10

On May 7, 2010 the Media Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission

(FCC) released a Memorandum Opinion and Order which could greatly improve

access to movie downloads for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing.

The FCC opinion and order is in response to a request filed nearly a year

ago by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which wanted a

waiver of FCC rules to protect “early-release” films from copying by home

viewers.  The term “early release” generally refers to movies made available

for home viewing within weeks after they are released in theaters.

The FCC’s decision aims to give the companies who belong to the MPAA, and

the partner companies that provide their movies for home viewing, a limited

waiver to disable audio-visual outputs.  One of the FCC’s conditions in

allowing this waiver is that individuals with hearing disabilities must be

able to access closed captioning.  Our friends who are blind or visually

impaired would also benefit from the FCC’s encouragement that the set-top

devices used to access these early-release movies be able to receive video

description.

Here is the specific language from the Memorandum Opinion and Order:

16. Closed Captioning and Video Description. 

The American Association of People with Disabilities favors MPAA’s plan to

offer high-definition films before the general in-home viewing release date

and asserts it will serve our nation’s disabled citizens by increasing the

entertainment options available in the home.(58)

The National Association of the Deaf argues that granting the requested

Waiver can serve a vital role to our nation’s deaf and blind citizens if the

new product offerings include closed

captioning and video description, as less than 1 percent of films shown in

movie theaters are shown with captions. (59)

We agree that MPAA’s proposed service may provide a benefit to viewers with

disabilities, particularly given that video-on-demand services must be

offered with closed captions.(60) We condition grant of this waiver on the

waiver holder’s providing consumer education about how individuals with

hearing disabilities can access closed captioning when using the proposed

service. 

We further encourage MVPDs that take advantage of the waiver to ensure that

the set-top devices used to access this new service are able to pass through

video description when provided as part of the programming stream.  We will

monitor the developments in this area, and we encourage the public to aid us

in this effort. 

For the full text of the Memorandum Opinion and Order:

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-10-795A1.txt

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