All 3 Commissioners Expected to OK Video Description Item
The FCC draft order on video description is expected to receive little industry pushback and to be approved by all three commissioners, industry attorneys and an agency official told us. Though the item won’t increase the amount of described video to the degree that a previous draft nearly approved under the previous administration late last year would have (see 1611160048), consumer advocacy groups welcome the action. The draft is “a very good thing,” said American Foundation for the Blind Public Policy Director Mark Richert. “What a shame it is that this couldn’t be done months ago.”
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The draft item set for commissioners' July 13 meeting will increase the amount of described video by 75 percent, from 50 hours per quarter for each network to 87.5 and will allow any programming between 6 a.m. and midnight to count toward that total. Congress explicitly allowed that increase, and both Commissioner Mike O’Rielly and Chairman Ajit Pai said last year they would support such an increase, indicating neither is likely to object to the draft item. Missing from the current draft are rules proposed under previous Chairman Tom Wheeler that would have expanded the number of networks required to provide video description and made that requirement permanent for any network of a certain reach, even if it subsequently decreased in scale. Pai and O’Rielly vociferously opposed those rules, which led to the item being withdrawn by Wheeler’s office in November after legislators asked the FCC to refrain from controversial moves after the 2016 presidential election results. The item was pulled from the November agenda not long before the scheduled commissioners’ meeting, when it was expected to pass 3-2. Increasing the amount of described video got caught up in “needless politics,” Richert said.
Commissioner Mignon Clyburn was seen as supporting the 2016 video description item, and is expected to support this one as well, said industry officials. An FCC official suggested she may concur rather than approve in protest of the smaller increase in described video. Clyburn is a vocal supporter of increasing video description, and consumer groups said she won’t oppose a rule that increases accessibility for the visually impaired, even if it’s not the degree she would like. “It’s fair to say that any increase is a positive,” said American Council of the Blind Director-Governmental Affairs Anthony Stephens.
The current draft item also relaxes the rules about when content can count toward the described video total. Under the current rules, only programming during prime time and the children’s TV time frame count toward the total. Under the draft item, any programming between 6 a.m. and midnight would count toward the total. NAB and other industry commenters requested that change during the lead-up to the previous order. That's a reasons lawyers and an FCC official don’t expect much industry-side criticism against the current item.
Consumer advocates said they don’t expect the relaxed requirements to pose a problem for users of video description. Market forces likely will lead to the most popular content getting the video description treatment in any case, Stephens said. Online media providers such as Amazon and Netflix offer video description, and that’s likely to lead increasingly to more incumbent entities doing the same, Stephens said. He pointed to NBC’s use of video description during the Olympics as an indication of change. “The industry is embracing this,” he said.