New Closed Captioning Toolkit Now Available

The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) rules require that nearly all televised programming must be closed captioned for viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing. However, the FCC has recognized that creating real-time closed captions for news programming can be difficult or expensive, particularly for stations in small and medium sized markets. Therefore, the FCC allows certain television stations to use ENT to caption live news. ENT is an automated process that converts the words in a teleprompter script into captions that appear on a viewer's television screen. Under the FCC's rules, only certain broadcasters may use ENT to caption news programming, including stations not affiliated with the four major national broadcast networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox) and affiliates of the four major national broadcast networks outside the 25 largest designated market areas (DMAs).

NAB recently participated in an FCC advisory group that created an ENT toolkit designed to help broadcasters ensure the effectiveness and quality of ENT captions for the benefit of viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing. The toolkit provides guidance on the most important aspects of effective ENT, such as the speed and positioning of ENT captions, and recommendations for helping to make sure weather, sports and other news segments are accessible.

NAB strongly encourages all stations that are eligible to use ENT to consult this new toolkit and to make sure that the toolkit is distributed to the ENT Coordinator at your station, if appropriate, and any other personnel who may find it useful. The ENT toolkit is available for download in English and Spanish on NAB's website and the FCC's Closed Captioning website.