[Text] FCC's Internet Protocol Captioning Rules

Timed-text enthusiasts of all types will want to know (if they don't already) that on January 13, 2012, the US Federal Communications Commission released its rules defining the captioning of videos distributed over IP.  The rules cover only materials previously captioned and distributed over broadcast, cable and satellite television.

The complete 112-page ruling can be found at http://www.fcc.gov/document/closed-captioning-internet-protocol-delivered-video-programming-0 .  NCAM has released a four-page summary of the ruling at http://ncam.wgbh.org/file_download/137 .  One note of particular interest to this group is that SMPTE-TT has been designated as a "safe-harbor" format for use as an interchange and delivery standard, although other timed-text formats are also allowable.

Geoff/NCAM