Media Bureau Grants Audible Crawl Rule, Audible Emergency Graphics Waivers

Forcing analog-only cable systems to comply with the audible crawl rule would have forced financially marginal systems out of business, American Cable Association President Matt Polka said Tuesday, applauding Friday's FCC Media Bureau order granting an ACA-sought waiver for such analog systems. The bureau said analog-only systems that eventually transition to digital technology will have the ability to pass through a secondary audio stream with audible emergency information and will be obliged to do so by the audible crawl rule, and those that remain analog-only will have longer business lives due to the permanent waiver. The order extended for five more years the existing waiver given to TV broadcasters requiring they aurally describe visual but non-textual emergency information; that waiver had been sought by NAB, the American Foundation for the Blind and American Council of the Blind (see 1803230067). The bureau said the waiver, now running to May 26, 2023, recognizes that the broadcast industry doesn't have a good option for ensuring good descriptions of images and dynamic video conveying visual emergency information over existing broadcast systems.