All broadcasts that occur after September 30, 2012 that are required to contain Closed Captions for broadcast television, will also be required by the FCC to provide captions for the same broadcast, streamed or played on the internet for the following devices; All (smartphones, tablets, personal computers, television set-top boxes, recording devices and removable media players). The requirements are in the “Closed Captioning of Internet Protocol-Delivered Video Programming: Implementation of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010”, MB Docket No. 11-154, Released January 13, 2012.
Simply put, if you are required to include Close Captions in your current broadcast on TV. You now have to provide Close Captions with similar quality for ALL Internet Devices. Ministries, Movie studios, Individuals are required to provide the Closed Caption to the broadcaster of their Internet content. The broadcaster (a church may be it’s own broadcaster), is required to display Closed Captions on ALL internet connected devices. Smartphones, tablets, personal computers, television set-top boxes, recording devices and removable media players. This applies to any and every broadcast that was prerecorded, and broadcast on TV after September 30, 2012.
Example: You have a older broadcast, that is aired on TV after the deadline. You will not be able to place that full length video on your website, a sharing site, have it broadcast in an Internet Broadcaster site unless it can provide Closed Captions on ALL devices from that website, sharing site or Internet Broadcaster. It will also have to be removed from all sites as well. The FCC will be collecting complaints, and require that broadcasters have a designated office to receive Closed Captions complaints.
Most ministries are not affected by this currently. But many who are are not aware of the new responsibilities required of them by the FCC. Violations will be investigated, and if not rectified penalties assessed.
The new rules define 3 different responsible parties for Closed Captions. The “video programming owner” (“VPO”), “video programming distributor” (“VPD”), and “video programming provider” (“VPP”). Each as different responsibilities.
Ministries, Churches and Individuals who produce video content are VPOs.
Broadcasters, Video Sharing sites, personal websites and ministry sites are VPDs and VPPs.
The rules assign the VPD and VPP with the following responsibility. “Specifically, we define a VPD or VPP as any person or entity that makes video programming available directly to the end user through a distribution method that uses IP.” IP means Internet Protocol.
So trueGOD.tv would be a VPD. For content we produce we are a VPO, VPP and a VPD. If you broadcast your own content on your site you are also a VPO, VPP and VPD.
Under the new rules VPOs are responsible to provide Closed Captions to the VPP and VDP.
VPP and VPD are responsible to pass through or render Close Captions for All IP (internet protocol) devices.
The challenge is that most ministries, even larger ministries do not have the technology in place to provide Closed Captions on their broadcasts, Video On Demand, Playlists, Mobile Devices, or Apps.
trueGOD.tv provides FCC Compliant IP Closed Captions for your ministry broadcast. To meet the requirements of the FCC cannot be done with a box, special link, or simply forcing Closed Captions on all videos. The rules require that the captions online be of comparable quality of TV captioning. Currently no browsers can decode TV style captions, and HTML5 is not completely implemented with captions, none of the desktop browsers will support the WebVTT captions completely by deadline. Flash captions do not work on non-flash devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod, most Androids). And there are other issues as well.
trueGOD.tv provides the END-2-END solution needed for FCC Compliant IP Closed Captions. We encode your content for all of the major internet device players, from HD to mobile. We embed captions for devices that require it in the video stream, and our device-aware player provides the correct technology, and caption type for the connected device. Or streaming server technology will protect your content, using real streaming technology. You can embed our device aware player on your website, embed it in your App, broadcast a scheduled playlist including live events. All compliant to FCC regulations.
trueGOD.tv EmbedPlayer:
- HTML5, Flash, IOS, Javascript Aware player
- Simple Embed Code
- Closed Captions (presenting the right captions based upon device)
- Device Aware EmbedPlayer
- Channel Player for Broadcast Streams
- Scheduling for Pre-recorded and Live Event Broadcasting.
- Advertising Insertion using Ad Server Technology Options.
trueGOD.tv Endcoding Services:
- Auto Extraction of Existing SUB, SRT embedded captions.
- Conversion of embedded captions to each of the formats to cover ALL devices.
- Encoding of uploaded video file into multiple closed caption device optimized files, for streaming and VOD.
- Cloud hosting and distribution of hosted encoded archives.
- Bulk encoding options for large inventories needing captions.
trueGOD.tv Video Hosting Services:
- Caption uploads, creation and conversion for ALL devices.
- Unlimited storage, broadcasting
- Streaming: Progressive, HTTP, RTMP, RTS, Silverlight.
- Platforms: Android, Flash, IOS, Roku, Smartphones, SmartTVs, Tablets, HTML5.
- Channel Player: Random, Scheduling, Live and Prerecorded. Embedded on your site and ours.
- Live Streaming for 10 to 100,000 concurrent viewers.
- Transcoding, DRV, Encryption options
- Pay-Per-View options
- Video Advertising Platform
- Banner Advertising Servers
- Caption Conversions to over 60 languages.
trueGOD.tv TV Platform:
- Broadcasting over 100 TV channels
- Over 100 languages of content
- Ranked in the top 1M websites globally.
- Affiliate TV station of Cornerstone TeleVision Network
- Affiliate TV station of TCT Network
- Over 150,000 videos in inventory
- Over 40,000 videos uploaded
- Redundant, distributed global hosting platform
- We are an independent broadcaster
- Our platform is not a sublicense of any other platform
- Broadcasting for over 8 years
- Registered with the FCC
- Dedicated to the Kingdom of God
We are constantly improving, upgrading and adding new features. As new devices become available to broadcast IP video we will add those devices to our player as well. So your videos will be compliant today and in the future. We have numerous servers, storage systems, and technology solutions to help your ministry.
Do you need help? Are you complaint? Will you make the deadline? Let us help you. TrueGOD television Networks, 404-399-8340, info@truegod.tv.
You can read the 130 pages of new rules from the FCC here.
Here is a good summary of the requirements.
Guide for Internet Captions from the FCC.
