Although the FCC has recently improved its Help Center with a more simplified look and improved user experience, this is not your only avenue for filing captioning complaints. Since content producers are required to submit their certificate of closed captioning compliance with the airing station, the FCC will often be the middle-man for these complaints, forwarding them to the station or cable provider from which the complaint originated. It is advised to initially contact your Video Program Distributor (VPD) within 60 days of the error if you are looking for an immediate response. If the program has not been rectified within 30 days of your complaint, you should file the complaint with the FCC.
In September of 2012, the FCC announced the obligation for closed captioning on all full-length Internet video programming that was previously broadcast on television in the United States with captions. In accordance with further rulings, multiple deadlines are imminent in relation to “Internet video clips,” as well as timelines for the presence of captions on videos once repurposed for the Internet.
In September of 2011, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a notice of proposed rule making in Docket OST 2011-0182 titled, “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance (U.S. Airports).” The DOT issued this final rule to amend section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which requires accessibility in airport terminal facilities.Read
Due to the updated FCC guidelines and standards regarding the quality of captioning, video editors face challenges when it comes to graphic placement during their programs, particularly text-heavy programming such as infomercials.
The new law states the following: Captioning shall be view-able and shall not block other important visual content on the screen, including, but not limited to, character faces, featured text (e.g., weather or other news updates, graphics, and credits), and other information that is essential to understanding a program’s content when the closed captioning feature is activated.
In order to avoid potentially getting their show rejected by TV stations, editors have had to work hard and be extra creative so they can allow space for closed captions to be displayed without conflicting with any important visual content.
The following blog was written by one of our clients, Simon Roberts, from Rock Church San Diego.
Since the Rock Church San Diego launched Closed Captioning at the 10 am live stream recently, I've had several inquiries into how we went about adding this essential feature.
I figured the best way to answer this is simply to write about it. So, in what is hopefully the first of many posts regarding church technology projects, let's begin.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Approximately 17 percent (36 million) of American adults report some degree of hearing loss. Source: Deaf Statistics for USA
Aberdeen Broadcast Services is honored to confidently proclaim that we have secured our position as a trusted and reliable vendor of captioning and digital file delivery throughout the #2 Designated Market Area in the United States, according to recent estimates by The Nielsen Company. Our AberFast Digital File Delivery is now in place to deliver broadcast-ready long-form programming to all of the major stations in the Los Angeles market including KCBS (CBS), KNBC (NBC), KTLA (CW), KABC (ABC), and KTTV (FOX).
To what do we attribute our success?
Station managers are able to free up the time of their engineers and traffic personnel from ingesting tapes or flipping individual client files flowing in from various producers. The content securely arrives at the station QC’d for broadcast in a custom play-server ready file codec/wrapper, approved file naming system, and properly embedded closed captions.
And for the producers? One single upload of the finished program to us and we’ll take it from there.
Local Television Designated Market Area Estimates
For producers of paid programming, it is essential to know your reach.
Los Angeles is the most populous city in the state of California, and the second-most populous in the U.S; after New York City. According to Forbes, Los Angeles is currently on pace to become the world’s third city with a trillion-dollar economy, following behind Tokyo and New York City. The average resident of L.A. has 20% more purchasing power than their counterparts in New York.
There are 5,523,800 Los Angeles TV homes, making up 4.85% of the entire US TV viewership. Here’s how the demographics breakdown and where LA ranks:
AberFast Station Partners in the Los Angeles Market Area
KABC-TV ABC & ABC Family
KCAL-TV Independent
KCBS-TV CBS
KCOP-TV MYTV
KDOC-TV Independent
KFTR-TV Univision
KJLA-TV LATV
KLCS-TV PBS SoCal
KMEX-TV Univision
KNBC-TV NBC
KOCE-TV PBS
KPXN-TV Ion Television
KTBN-TV Trinity Broadcast Network
KTLA-TV CW
KTTV-TV Fox
KVEA-TV Telemundo
KXLA-TV Independent
We are adding clients and stations on a regular basis all over the world. Please check out our FULL station map. It’s now close to 400 stations globally!
A recognizable anthem throughout Los Angeles, the song “I love LA” by Randy Newman is ringing in our ears. With over 18 million people in the greater Los Angeles market, there’s a lot to love. "We love it!"
Audible exhales could be heard throughout the nearly 1 million square feet of exhibit space as the final closing announcement was sent over the loudspeakers of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Some, involuntary gasps of panic from what was left of 103,000 NAB attendees that just realized they didn't make it successfully through the 4 halls of the convention; and others, sighs of relief from the exhibitors of the 1,700 companies as they realized that the past 31 hours of standing on their feet is over.
That closing message also marked the 7th consecutive year of Aberdeen Broadcast Services exhibiting in the South Lower Hall at the NAB Show. This time, with a new location and a fresh look. As we continue to grow as a company, so does the size of our booth and the gathering of our team.
Upgraded 20'x20' booth complete with a 10'x4' triangular overhead hanging sign.
In the years past, Aberdeen has had a nice presence in a 10'x20' space just beyond the main product demonstrations from Red Digital Cinema, Blackmagic Design, and Adobe Systems. This year we were right in the middle of all that activity adjacent to Amazon Web Services.
We could not have predicted the perfect balance of inquiries across our 3 divisions. Frequent visits from producers looking for further education on the new closed captioning laws. TV stations looking to continue to free up their resources in the tape-less world. International producers looking to expand their audiences with multilanguage translations. And, unexpectedly, a dozen universities whose attention has focused on captioning their online courses after the recent lawsuit filed against a couple of Ivy League schools.
This year saw new innovative video and broadcasting technologies introduced at a rate only Flash Gordon could keep up with. 8K display systems, 10-ounce Micro Cinema Cameras, a storm-chasing Jeep Wrangler that would make Bill Paxton salivate, and drones. Drones EVERYWHERE. And like the drones, attendance is soaring: in six years, the turnout has grown to over 21,000 and now represents 164 countries!
It’s also encouraging to see the overall growth in the broadcasting industry at large. After all, the NAB was originally founded as the National Association of Radio Broadcasters and it wasn't until 1951 that the name was changed to include television broadcasts. Now, just “broadcasters” seem to cover it all.
2015 Aberdeen Broadcast Services Exhibitors
(Left to right) Michael, Tony, Arif, Kyle, Matt D., Steve, Becky Isaacs, Nathan, Ryan, Ed, and Matt Cook.
NAB Show, THANK YOU and we’ll see you again next year. April 16-21, 2016.
Advances in technology have shaped and changed modern-day college coursework. Prestigious universities like Harvard and M.I.T. offer numerous educational materials online, via different platforms (YouTube, iTunesU, etc.). These two universities even teamed up to create edX, which offers massive open online courses for free to students around the globe. The only setback? This content is unavailable to approximately 48 million Americans who are deaf or hard of hearing.Read
What happens if you are watching your favorite program and the closed captioning drops halfway through or the timing is so slow or fast that it doesn’t match the audio? Perhaps you also noticed a high number of errors in the closed captioning. Or maybe the closed captioning happened to be covering a speaker’s face or an important on-screen graphic? What can you do? The first thing to realize is that you as a consumer have the power to make a difference! If you are unsatisfied with the quality of captioning on a particular station or program, you can help remedy the problem.Read
One of the main goals of every producer is to try to reach the maximum amount of viewers every time their program airs. Apart from engaging content, time slots, and targeting the right regions, there is one simple thing EVERY producer can do. In this article, we will discuss why including Spanish captions is so important, how they work, and who is doing it.
Know Your Audience
First things first: Who is your audience? Perhaps it is as broad as every American across the nation. But do you know who they are? Can they understand your program?
Did you know that according to the United States Census Bureau, the U.S. had the second-largest Hispanic population in the world just behind Mexico [4]? That means there are more Spanish speakers in the U.S. than in Argentina and Spain!
If you live in the United States, you are among 54 million Hispanic people, of whom 38.3 million speak Spanish at home! That is 17% of the entire United States population [4].
And get this… the projected Hispanic population of the United States in 2060 is 128.8 million, which would be 31% of the nation’s population [4]!
Are you taking into consideration this huge audience with your programming? Have you thought about how many more people you could reach with your national TV broadcast, web videos, or DVD sales if you localized your programming with Spanish closed captioning, subtitles, or Spanish voice dubbing? Ministries in the know, like In Touch Ministries, have been doing this for years. Learn from the leaders.
The Secret: Experienced Broadcasters Use CC3
The simple truth is this: By offering captions in various languages, you automatically reach more viewers. Statistically, Spanish is the second most-used language in the United States [1] and there are more Spanish speakers in the U.S. than speakers of Chinese, French, German, Italian, Hawaiian, and the Native American languages combined. Spanish is the best place to start localizing your programming, and there is no faster, more cost-effective way than to utilize CC3.
If you are broadcasting in English, chances are you have already heard or thought about broadcasting Spanish captions. Some of you may already broadcast it via CC2, so why think about using CC3 [2]? Although broadcasting via CC1 and CC2 works well, both of these channels are embedded in field 1. By choosing CC3, which is embedded in field 2, you are able to provide the maximum bandwidth and allow for more accurately timed captions in both languages.
Also, in order to avoid bandwidth problems with early caption decoders [3], the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recommends bilingual programming to be broadcast via CC3. Many Spanish television networks, such as Univision and Telemundo, provide English captions for many of their Spanish programs in CC3. The standard nowadays has become to broadcast the original language’s captions on CC1, and then the alternative language’s captions on CC3.
All Ministries Should Consider Spanish Captions
In the Christian broadcasting industry, many ministries see the value of including Spanish captions. Take In Touch Ministries which has implemented the use of CC3 to offer Spanish captions for their English program, In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley. This has allowed them to provide high-quality Spanish captions to their viewers across the country, and gain viewership with their message.
Any ministry that is investing to broadcast nationally, should not only be captioning in English but in Spanish too. There is approximately a 20% increase in viewership and you can get Spanish captions for a fraction of the cost you pay to broadcast your programming. The additional cost is minimal and usually discounted when English and Spanish captioning are done in tandem with the same captioning company.
Observe the languages spoken in your community and you’ll find English is most definitely not the only language understood by your neighbors, and it also isn't always the primary language of your national viewers. Give Spanish captioning a try!
If you have any questions regarding Spanish captioning via CC3 or would like to see what it would cost to add Spanish captions to your video programming, contact us.
More astounding facts about the Hispanic population in the U.S. can be found here: United States Census Bureau.
