Deaf Associations Expect FCC to Deny Waiver for Africa Channel
The FCC seems likely to concur with opposition to a cable channel’s request to escape closed captioning rules, said an opponent of the waiver. Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing expects the commission to concur with its joint opposition of The Africa Channel’s (TAC) request (CD Sept 19 p14) for a temporary waiver, TDI General Counsel Jim House said. TDI and several other deaf groups said in their opposition posted Thursday to docket 06-181 (http://xrl.us/bmooei) that the channel’s petition lacks sufficient proof of its need for the waiver. Six other deaf advocacy groups signed TDI’s opposition.
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Closed captioning would cause TAC “undue economic burden,” the channel’s petition said (http://xrl.us/bmdkxb). It estimated the first year of captioning its programming would cost about $612,000, and $400,00 to $500,000 each year afterwards. The petition said TAC has had a net loss during every fiscal year since it started in 2003. The opposing groups said that is “impossible to verify” without more information and pointed out that TAC’s petition predicts profitability later this year.
Opposing groups also said TAC isn’t required to caption all of its content under FCC rules, but must spend at least 2 percent of its revenue on captioning. TAC made no indication of meeting that standard but only talked about the burden of captioning all its content, the opposition said. Joining TDI were the National Association of the Deaf, the Hearing Loss Association of America and others.
TAC General Manager Bob Reid said the petition does not indicate a lack of commitment to deaf audiences. The channel requested the waiver so it will have time to achieve better economic standing and therefore better provide captioning services, he told us.
Under current FCC policy, new TV channels are exempt from closed captioning during their first four years of operation, but they must prepare during that time to start allocating revenue toward captioning, TDI and its allies said. TAC has been running for eight years, which the opponents said was enough time to find resources for captioning.
House said adding captioning could even benefit the channel. “By making their programming accessible, they will increase the potential viewership as more viewers discover the benefits of captioning,” he said. TDI and the other groups have opposed “virtually all oppositions to captioning waiver requests since before the Anglers Order was issued,” House said of a commission captioning order. Reid said TAC will reply to the opposition.