In 2010 the FCC launched an investigation into the cable TV provider Comcast, following complaints that the company’s set-top boxes were not passing through closed captions. This investigation has now been terminated, with Comcast agreeing to take steps to rectify the problems, and to make a voluntary contribution of US$500,000 to the United States Treasury.
The ABC’s iView remains the only online ‘catch-up’ video service in Australia which carries a significant amount of captioning, with all prime-time programs from ABC1 and ABC2 captioned on iView.
This service, which is expected to launch in the first half of 2011, is a combination of the existing Freeview service with additional catch-up TV accessed via a broadband Internet connection.
Conducted by the Australian Institute, the survey showed that out of the 1294 respondents, 94% said they were aware of captioning, 30% said they sometimes used it and 3% said they always used the service when watching television.
