Reinstatement of the quotas for audio description (called ‘video description’ in the US) is a provision of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010, which was signed into law by President Obama in October.
The quotas were originally introduced by the FCC in 2000, but its authority to do this was successfully challenged in the United States Court of Appeal five months later.
The FCC now intends to reinstate the rules, with some modifications, on 8 October 2011. This will mean that the top four national networks (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC) and subscription television suppliers with more than 50,000 subscribers will have to provide 50 hours of audio described prime time and/or children’s programs per quarter.
In the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the FCC has raised a number of issues for comment, including:
- What are the costs of audio description?
- Should the FCC mandate quality standards and if so, what should they be?
- What programs should be audio described?
- How should audio described programs be publicised?
The FCC proposes that this requirement will commence on 1 January 2012.
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