Rerun TV programs will count one additional time toward TV...
Rerun TV programs will count one additional time toward TV stations’ and MVPDs’ obligations to carry 50-hours of primetime or kids’ programming each quarter with video descriptions, said an FCC rulemaking notice released Thursday. Major network-affiliated stations in the top…
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25 markets will be required to meet that quota, as expected (CD Feb 25 p6). TV distributors with 50,000 or more subscribers will have to make 50 hours of video descriptions each quarter available on the top five non-broadcast networks they carry, the notice said. Any TV station, regardless of size or affiliation, must pass through video descriptions when the network provides it “and the station has the technical capability to do so,” the notice said. MVPDs must similarly pass through the descriptions when provided by a TV station, it said. Under the rerun rule, an hour-long program that appears twice on the same network with video descriptions would fulfill two of the operator’s 50 hours of obligations. Any further rebroadcasts wouldn’t be counted toward the total. The commission plans to adopt and publish its new video description rules by Oct. 8, it said. That’s when the Communications and Video Accessibility Act requires it to reinstate the rules. The FCC won’t require compliance before Jan. 1, 2012, the notice said. Comments on the notice will be due 45 days after it’s published in the Federal Register.