CRTC approves French-language closed captioning standards

The CRTC said Thursday it has approved mandatory standards for French-language closed captioning. The commission said that mandatory standards proposed by a French-language closed captioning working group are achievable, measurable and enforceable. In its decision, the commission said captioning for French-language programs must target an accuracy rate of 100 per cent, which also includes spelling, the CRTC said. With respect to live programming, the working group had proposed an accuracy rate of 85 per cent. The CRTC said the proposed rate provides broadcasters with an appropriate amount of flexibility. “This standard translates into a 15 per cent margin of error averaged over the length of the program,” the commission said. “In the commission’s view, the proposed accuracy rate will ensure an adequate and reasonable level of captioning quality based on the technology available today, while providing sufficient flexibility to broadcasters.” The CRTC said that it recognized technical impediments existing on certain types of programming that might keep broadcasters from meeting standards. If a broadcaster rebroadcasts a program that was aired live, it must correct captioning errors if the content is broadcast in its original form, the CRTC said. For news and reporting content, errors must be corrected if “the time between the end of the original broadcast and the rebroadcast is equal to at least two times the total duration of the program,” the commission said. Captioning errors must also be corrected if the program is rebroadcast more than 24 hours after the original, it said. The commission said captions must be verbatim representations of the audio in terms of speed. Captions must also be positioned to avoid covering action or any visual elements needed to understand programming, the CRTC said.

CRTC approves French-language closed captioning standards

Brief | December 1, 2011

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us