Closed captioning of video programming repurposed to the Internet has been an obligation of television stations for over a year.  Thus far, most stations have been able to comply with the requirements – as those requirements have only applied to full programs that were captioned when broadcast over the air, and then carried over to the Internet, either in whole or in segments that comprise essentially all of the program.  Now, the FCC is asking if any program excerpt should be captioned when transmitted over the Internet.  In a Public Notice released this week, the FCC asked whether the obligation to caption television programming transmitted through IP technologies should be extended to clips of such programming as well.

In asking for comments, the FCC noted that, when Congress adopted the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, which gave the FCC authority to mandate Internet captioning of TV programs, Congress required only the captioning of full programs, but it said that the limitation to full programs was intended only “at this time,” suggesting that the FCC could extend the requirements to clips at some point in the future.  Thus, the Commission is asking if this is the time to look at an extension of the obligations.  In undertaking this examination, the FCC is posing numerous requests for information from interested parties.
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