Online videos have become the norm and one of the most predominant ways of watching online media in the 21st century for the majority of individuals. Gone are the days of checking your TV guide, or even Tele-Text (for those old enough to remember) for the next available screening of your favorite TV show.
With online videos, multiple streaming services, and social networks such as You Tube being easily accessible, watching whatever we want whenever we want is a very standard aspect of modern day culture.
However, when it comes to IP video programming legislation, the FCC (Federal Communication Commission) have continued to work hard on improving their rules on closed captioning. Numerous updates have recently taken place in order to fall into accordance with the CVAA (Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act).
The need for clearer legislation for online video programming has been highly sought after in order to maintain a level of quality standards which is relevant for transcription companies like Verbit. As of February 20th, 2014 the FCC declared a new rule regarding content quality for closed captioning of video programming, CVAA.
Traditionally the FCC ruling has only focused on television programming; however in their report they demonstrate that the quality standards for television closed captioning has become even more so prevalent because it sets the bar for content shown online. Thus, the passage of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA) requires the following standards; anything shown on traditional television must reach the same programming standards once released as an online video.
The four new quality standards have been put in place to categorize the importance and accessibility of online video captioning. The standards are as follows; caption accuracy, caption synchronicity, program completeness, and caption placement.
We’ve broken them down in to four summaries in order to provide a clearer depiction and gain a clear understanding of each component:
Caption accuracy
According to the FCC, “In order to be accurate, captions must match the spoken words in the dialogue, in their original language (English or Spanish), to the fullest extent possible and include full lyrics when provided on the audio track.” Make perfect sense? What the FCC are stating here is that captions must mirror almost identically what is spoken in the audible content. This typically neglects the use of paraphrasing. Furthermore, the use of good grammar and spelling is also important and taken into consideration.
In order to further be deemed as accurate, captions must also emphasize the tone of voice portrayed by the speaker. They must be writing in accurate context also and the impact of the performance must not be lost in the transcribed captioning. It is worth highlighting here that this includes noises, sound effects, music etc.
Caption synchronicity
The FCC says here, “In order to be synchronous, captions must coincide with their corresponding spoken words and sounds to the greatest extent possible.” Let’s face it, we’re not human robots, therefore, the FCC has ensured captions are readable at a suitable speed for viewers. In addition, when programs are edited, the captions are reformatted to provide accurate synchronization.
Program completeness
Here, the FCC states, “In order for a program’s captions to be complete, captions must run from the beginning to the end of the program, to the fullest extent possible.” Simply, to ensure captions do not drop mid program and any which do will be within violation of the FCC standards.
Caption placement
FCC states that “captions should 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.” New standards ensure text can be clearly seen and read on the screen for viewers to see.
While online videos were also captioned at high accuracy levels, when measuring accuracy it can sometimes be subjective, therefore the FCC standards are somewhat lenient.
Further changes in FCC standards include the addition of religious organizations having to comply with new standards as of October 20th, 2011. Additionally, closed captioning requirements for IP delivered video content was placed on public video clips as of July 11, 2014.