FCC Recognizes SMPTE for Closed-Captioning Standard

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- Feds likes the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers’ Timed Text standard for captioning online video content. SMPTE said the standard is receiving an honor from the Federal Communications Commission—a Chairman’s Award for Advancement in Accessibility. SMPTE said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will present the award to the Society at a ceremony on Dec. 19, 2012 at the FCC headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The FCC declared the SMPTE Timed Text standard a safe harbor interchange and delivery format in February. As a result, captioned video content distributed via the Internet that uses the standard will comply with the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, a recently enacted law designed to ensure the accessibility, usability, and affordability of broadband, wireless, and Internet technologies for people with disabilities. The standard is based on Timed Text Markup Language 1.0, which now is used for captioning UltraViolet content. The SMPTE standard is available free of charge at www.smpte.org/standards.

The FCC Chairman’s awards are intended to encourage technological innovation in communication-related areas and to recognize engineers, researchers, and other technologists whose energies and perseverance contribute to technologies that help people with disabilities to obtain and succeed at jobs and participate more actively in the community. The awards are a project of the FCC’s Accessibility and Innovation Initiative, which is based on a recommendation from the FCC’s 2010 National Broadband Plan.