In a decision that may cause a fair amount of chaos for program producers, television stations, and cable systems, the FCC yesterday released an Order overturning 298 previously granted closed captioning waivers. According to the Order, the FCC granted only three temporary waivers in the period between 1996, when the captioning requirement was created by Congress, and 2005. However, in 2006, the FCC suddenly granted 303 permanent waivers of the captioning requirement. While the Order indicates that the FCC has received an additional 500 waiver requests since that time, it does not indicate whether any of these later requests have been acted on. It therefore appears that the 298 captioning waivers that were overturned represent the great majority of all outstanding waivers.
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Note: Scott R. Flick is a partner with the law firm Pillsbury. He focuses on legal issues impacting mass media and new communications technologies. He also is a regular contributor to CommLawCenter.com, Pillsbury's one-stop resource center covering a wide array of communications law matters.
