FCC Unanimously Expands Video Description

But American Foundation for the Blind Public Policy Director Mark Richert disagreed with pushing the deadline back since the increase has been under discussion for “a decade.” It's “cool to see more hours mandated,” but pushing for video description never seems to lead to a “clean win” for those who use the service, he said.

Though the order was expected to be approved, industry and FCC officials said the item was the focus of a great deal of discussion among the commissioners’ offices. Industry officials said the office of Chairman Ajit Pai was actively seeking a 3-0 vote, and sought to work with the Commissioner Mignon Clyburn to make that happen. NCTA unsuccessfully asked the FCC to allow more flexibility for networks to use re-run described programming to count toward the new total, officials said. That clause likely was not included to keep the item palatable to Clyburn, industry officials said. NCTA also asked for the deadline to be pushed back, which was included in the final order. An FCC spokesman declined to comment on the deliberations.

The order increases as expected the amount of described video by 75 percent, from 50 hours per quarter for each network to 87.5, FCC officials said. Networks will be able to count any described programming between 6 a.m. and midnight to fulfill the additional requirement -- the original 50 hours must still come from content shown in the prime and kids’ TV time frames. A bigger increase was proposed under the previous administration in an item pulled from the agenda in November in anticipation of the FCC leadership change.

Though industry officials said they expected Clyburn to lambaste Pai for the difference between the current video description order and the blocked one withdrawn last year, her statement contained only praise. She's “pleased” with the order and it opens the door for future commission action, she said. Clyburn is seen as a booster for video description, consumer groups said, and at the June Disability Advisory Committee meeting, she urged the FCC to act on the issue. The agency should next make it easier for consumers to access and locate described programming, she said.

Clyburn also urged video programmers to go beyond what’s required in offering video description, and Richert told us this is already happening with online video providers such as Amazon. The “landscape” is changing, Richert said. “Independent of today’s action, broadcast and cable networks have an opportunity to voluntarily do more than what is required,” Clyburn said.

Wednesday’s order increases video description to the maximum amount allowed under the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, said Pai and Commissioner Mike O’Rielly in statements released Wednesday. O’Rielly condemned the previous draft order, which would have expanded the scope of which networks are required to offer described video: “The previous Commission’s proposal to increase the number of included networks has no basis in the statute, and was correctly excluded from this Order.”

Pai touted the final order’s increased flexibility, while O’Rielly said it wasn’t flexible enough. The commission “should be adopting a real safe harbor” for networks that show a great deal of re-run described programming or live programming “as opposed to a case-by-case waiver approach,” O’Rielly said. He said the order should have contained language that made it easier for such waivers to be granted. O’Rielly is displeased with the item’s cost-benefit analysis, which he said didn’t sufficiently quantify the order’s benefits. “Video description in programming has been found by some to be a useful improvement” for the visually impaired, O’Rielly said. “Although it is beefed up somewhat from the analysis provided in the NPRM, I believe we should be able to make a better case to quantify the benefits to justify expanding the rules.”