CTA, Other Industry Groups Oppose FCC Proposal on Devices' Caption Display Settings

The FCC lacks authority to tell pay-TV carriers and device manufacturers where in their user interfaces that closed-caption display settings must be located, said AT&T, CTA, NCTA and the Telecommunications Industry Association in comments in docket 12-108 in response to a second Further NPRM. A joint filing by several consumer groups, including the National Association of the Deaf and Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, supported the FCC proposal to require caption display settings to be on the first level of device menus.

“The proposed first-level menu item rule would provide equal access to video programming by removing technical barriers that currently prevent captions from being readable by many consumers,” the consumer groups said. FCC authority to make such a requirement is based on the Television Decoder Circuitry Act, the consumer groups said. The TDCA gives the FCC “broad authority” to “ensure that consumers can access and utilize user display settings for closed captioning,” the joint filing said. AT&T, CTA and NCTA disagreed. “The TDCA focuses on decoder circuitry for broadcast televisions, not user interfaces relating to display settings for closed captioning,” AT&T said. “Congress did not grant the Commission such authority under any statute," NCTA said. "The Commission should refrain from adopting any additional rules governing access to enhanced captioning display settings.”

If the commission does adopt such rules, it needs to make exceptions for entities that could be unduly burdened by the requirement, TIA and other associations said. Industry already is working to comply with previously approved FCC user interface requirements that take effect in December, TIA said. "Imposing new requirements, without providing a mechanism by which MVPDs and device manufacturers can raise case-by-case, good faith requests for exceptions, will place excessive burdens on these entities,” TIA said of multichannel video programming distributors. “Targeted exemptions” would allow the FCC and manufacturers to “engage in a dialogue to respond appropriately to specific technical and market conditions that may not be addressed by the overarching rule,” CTA said. There is no need for technical feasibility exemptions for companies trying to comply with the proposed rule, the consumer groups said. “There is no information in the record demonstrating that any device that can play video and render closed captions cannot also, as a technical matter, include a simple first-level menu item for closed captioning settings.”

The FCC also should adopt a two-year compliance period if it adopts the rule, the industry associations and AT&T said. “Appropriate development time is essential,” said AT&T, requesting an implementation period two years from the rule's effective date. The consumer groups opposed any long implementation period. The commission should adopt the same December 2016 compliance deadline as for the rule requiring captions to be activated by a button, key or icon, the groups said.