According to the notice issued by the FCC on 2 June 2014, after representatives of the programs lodged initial petitions for exemptions, they were asked to provide further information. As they had failed to do this to the FCC’s satisfaction, it dismissed the petitions, which means that the programs have 90 days to meet captioning requirements. The programs include Zomboo’s House of Horror Movies, The Norm Prouty Real Estate Show and several religious programs.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) also has powers to grant exemptions to caption requirements (in cases where meeting them would cause “financial hardship”). However it can only grant these exemptions to television license holders, and not to individual programs as is the case in the US. Earlier this year, the ACMA granted exemptions to three subscription TV providers.
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