In 2005, The Christian Angler Outdoors Television Show applied to the FCC for a caption exemption which was granted on the basis that it was a non-commercial program which did not attract any revenue. Following the so-called Anglers Order, a further 300 organisations were granted exemption from national captioning rules.
Deaf and hearing impaired advocacy groups objected strongly to this, arguing that the FCC had created a new category of exempted programming, and that all an organisation had to do to be eligible for an exemption was to state it was not-for-profit.
In October 2011 the FCC issued a new ruling overturning its previous one, stating that it should have considered “all of the petitioners’ available resources…not just the resources allocated for the programs for which the exemptions were sought”. All applications will again be decided on a case-by-case basis, with applicants having to provide documentation of finances, the cost and nature of captioning, the impact on the organisation and any attempt that has been made to raise funding or assistance for the captioning.
The new ruling made void all the exemptions granted since the Anglers Order came into effect, with organisations asked to submit new applications by 18 January. Those which failed to do so were obliged to commence captioning the following day.
The Coalition of Organisations for Accessible Technology (COAT) has commended the FCC “for having the courage to reverse a bad order and that will further pave the way to ensuring more ubiquitous captioning in the future”.
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