The Federal Communications Commission has adopted filing exemptions that, once effective, would let qualifying television program suppliers rely on a channel administrator's or network's captioning certifications. The agency says the changes do not alter any programmer's substantive duty to provide closed captions.
The final rule was published in the October 26 Federal Register. Its general effective date is November 25, but the provisions establishing those filing exemptions are delayed indefinitely pending information-collection review.
Whose paperwork changes
The rule concerns suppliers providing programming exclusively to public, educational or governmental access channels, known as PEG channels, or to nonbroadcast networks distributed by cable or another multichannel video programming distributor.
To qualify for the exemptions, the channel or network administrator must have the required contact information and certification on file with the FCC. The certification must attest either that the channel or network itself is exempt from captioning rules, or that its entire programming line-up complies with or is exempt from those rules.
If the administrator does not register and certify, the individual programmers remain subject to the registration and certification requirements. The FCC says the filing obligations adopted in 2016 require submissions once a compliance date is published in the Federal Register. The commission says its changes are intended to avoid duplicate submissions for programming already covered by an administrator's filing.
Captioning duties remain
The FCC says programming already exempt from captioning will remain exempt, while providers of non-exempt programming must continue to supply captions. The changes relieve qualifying suppliers from filing requirements, rather than the underlying captioning quality standards.
That distinction matters for viewers: a channel-wide certification is not a new blanket exemption from captions for everything shown on the channel. It can instead certify that the programming is compliant or already exempt.
November 25 is not the exemption start
The published DATES paragraph specifically delays amendatory instruction 3, covering 47 CFR 79.1(i)(4) and (m)(6). Those are the added contact-information and certification exemptions.
The ordering clauses say these amendments will not become effective until the Office of Management and Budget completes review of information collections the FCC bureau determines are required under the Paperwork Reduction Act. The commission will announce their effective date in a Federal Register notice and a subsequent Public Notice.
This publication therefore supplies no calendar date on which program suppliers may begin relying on the new filing exemptions.