WASHINGTON, D.C. — The FCC on Wednesday acted to remove what the Carr Commission calls “a costly and unnecessary regulatory burden hanging over thousands of citizens and organizations” that create locally owned and locally watched video programming for public, educational, and governmental access (PEG) channels.
Specifically, the Commission exempts these PEG video programmers from the requirement to register with the Commission and to certify captioning compliance if the PEG video programmers provide video programming exclusively to PEG channels that are exempt from closed captioning requirements.
Additionally, providers of PEG programming have been relieved of their filing obligations “if the administrators of non-exempt PEG channels certify compliance for programming carried on such channels.”
The FCC also exempted providers of programming carried on non-broadcast networks for distribution by a cable operator or other multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) from certifying when the non-broadcast network itself certifies that it is exempt or that all programming comprising the network’s linear line-up is either exempt from or compliant with the closed captioning rules.
Once these amended rules become effective, cable operators and other video programming distributors will also be relieved of the obligation to use “best efforts” to obtain caption quality certifications from video programmers, the FCC said.
The decision is part of Chairman Brendan Carr’s “Re: Delete, Delete, Delete” initiative, as rules adopted in 2016 had not yet been fully implemented.
RBR+TVBR Delivers: Download the entire Report and Order by clicking here.
In a statement, Carr elaborated on how, one decade ago, “stakeholders asked the FCC to streamline closed captioning registration and certification requirements for producers that provide programs exclusively to public, educational, and governmental access or PEG channels. At the time, they raised concerns that requiring volunteers and community groups – such as Cub Scouts or gospel choirs – that were exempt from captioning rules to comply with those underlying obligations was both burdensome and needless.”
The stakeholders, Carr added, also asked the FCC to relieve program owners from compliance with captioning rules when their programs on linear networks were distributed by MVPDs, since the network themselves already certify compliance.
“In the agency’s Delete, Delete, Delete proceeding, commenters raised these concerns again,” Carr said. “And today, 10 years later, we finally take action. We have voted to eliminate these unnecessarily duplicative requirements, saving hundreds of thousands of programmers a total of nearly $2.5 million annually in needless regulatory costs. We’ve concluded from the record that this action would have no negative impact on captioning availability or quality. This item continues the Commission’s work to eliminate outdated rules and minimize duplicative obligations that provide no consumer benefit.”
