On TV, why is closed captioning always “provided in part by” something, IE a certain company? Why isn’t it just part of broadcasting standards that closed captions need to be present by default?
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Because closed captioning (generally) has to be manually typed out by listening to audio from the show or movie.
Studios often include the CC in major releaaes like movies and such, but for tv shows, it would take far too long to have a team of people constantly working to make captions for each weekly episode.
So, they outsource to data entry companies, who split the episode in 22, 1 minute files, and each minute file is transcribed by a person
They then put them all together, and provide them to the network broadcasting the show
They are required on all broadcasts in Canada between 6am and 12 midnight, although most broadcasters do them 24 hours a day. The sponsorship is just an ad like any other, some companies just want to tie their ad to something positive like accessibility.
Its just another way to sell advertising. Nothing more.
Shows need to make money and they have to get creative on what the hell they can actually sell. Brands want to advertise on shows, they’re willing to be creative as well to find a way to advertise.
So shows found another way to let an advertiser in, its just a sponsorship slot you can buy, it doesn’t really have anything to do with the actual closed captions. You can just buy the sponsorship slot associated with it, its not expensive.
As for regulations, in the US certain over-the-air broadcasts MUST, by law, have closed captioning, but cable channels and outside of those cases on locals, its not mandatory, although its near universal anyways to have at least English closed captions for US-based channels
Companies solicit sponsors for closed captioning to make them cheaper in exchange for advertisement. That partner paid for the captioning
Presented by default in _no way_ means they can’t accept paid sponsorship for it. This is done all the time.
I work in engineering and master control at a local PBS station and have some insight. There are a couple of parts to this, already mentioned by others, and some fun information I have from experience.
1. There are regulations in place in various countries. I can’t quote the specifics off of the top of my head, but I believe the regulations started years ago when over the air was the standard. As technology has changed, television has adapted, but continued to maintain older elements for legacy users and systems built on and dependant on legacy methods. Nowadays channels are provided via over the air, cable, satellite, and streaming. So standards from over the air have carried over (and not just captioning requirements). So captions are required for most programming and there are even standards relating to how they’re displayed, accuracy, etc.
2. Studios and stations specialize in the production and transmission of the content. Sometimes they can and do caption things themselves, though as mentioned elsewhere, captioning can be labor intensive and to be efficient and ensure you meet the requirements requires a degree of specialization. So it is often easier to outsource the work. Sometimes that’s where the “provided by” comes from.
3. Also mentioned previously, television production is costly. Studios like to offset the cost via sponsors and underwriting. These names can become attached to the captioning “provided by” if their contract is written specifically to fund that element. Where I work, grants and sponsor spots are often sold in this manner. It makes it easier to track what elements are covered and where the money is coming from/going.
4. Nowadays, captioning can be automated! Many people seem to prefer the method where a captioned dials in, listens, and types live and those captions are added to the outgoing signal. However, AI systems are getting better every day. We use a European company that provides captions this way for our live shows. It promises a certain level of accuracy that fits the requirements and allows us to send lists of specialized words to help the captioning program for things like local Town names, scientific phrases, or other lesser common things that would be specific to the content discussed.
I’m british so asking for clarification:
are you asking why they say “captions provided by ‘Captioning International'” or whatever? Because that’s just… a credit for doing a job. The production company will outsource doing the subtitling to a company that knows how to do it and they get a credit at the end just like everyone else.
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