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"Closed captioning is sponsored/provided by..."

D

Darth_vader

Guest
So for the last several years, almost every newer network or syndicated show I've seen is equipped with an advertisement for sponsorship of the closed caption track approximately two-thirds of the way in. I don't see it in older shows, particularly ones that were made before the mid-2000s.

Is there some federal regulation that says TV show companies have to do this or is it just some practise that everybody does for whatever reason?
 
If you can sell something, why not?

There's a federal regulation that requires recent programs be captioned.

I suppose someone once decided to see if they could sell sponsorship of the captions -- and it worked. Sometimes, the captions themselves also contain a sponsorship announcement, not necessarily at the same time as the announcement in the "regular" program.
 
Ironically, one of the biggest closed caption underwriters is WGBH - a PBS station...
 
Don't confuse the captioning *sponsor* with the captioning *service*.

It's fairly common to produce a program, then send the video file & a copy of the script to an outside service that adds the captions. (it's easier to properly synchronize the captions -- and reposition them on the screen, if appropriate -- after production) It's very common for the firm that does this post-production captioning to be credited.

WGBH is charging for this service.

It's of course also not unusual for some other firm to pay the station/network to sponsor those captions -- to offset WGBH's charges.

Local TV stations often "farm out" their captioning of local news to outside firms as well. (amusingly, our shows were often captioned by a captioner in Honolulu, 4500 miles away) It seems a lot less common to credit these firms.
 
WLS-TV's local news has their captioning (both English & Español) sponsered by Luna Carpets. I have never seen any special messages in the captions, but the Luna commercials themselves are captioned. While a bit off-topic, but when Karen Meyer does her stories on people with disabilities (she's hearing impaired), the station does open caption for her stories (captioning done by the station, & doesn't require a chip for this type of captioning).
 
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