FCC Announces New Closed Captioned Complaint Rules

This action by the FCC is in response to part of TDI's Petition for Rulemaking regarding captioning quality standards filed on July 23, 2004. The new procedure was first announced by the FCC on November 7, 2008 pending review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which became effective as of February 19, 2010. Thanks to the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and Northern Virginia Resource Center (NVRC) for their part in sending out this announcement.

Consumers can now file complaints directly with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), thanks to new closed captioning complaint rules by the FCC effective February 19, 2010. These new closed captioning rules, requested by TDI and other consumer groups in 2004, make it easier for consumers to report closed caption problems. When you see a television program that has no captions, missing captions, delayed captions, captions that are garbled, displayed too fast, or unreadable, please file a complaint with the FCC.

Filing Closed Captioning Complaints

Closed captioning complaints must be filed within 60 days of the captioning problem.

File your complaint with the FCC. The FCC will send your complaint to your video programming distributor (the TV station or your cable or satellite TV service). The distributor must respond to your complaint within 30 days.

Online
You can file your complaint by using the FCC's online Disability Access Complaint Form #2000C at https://esupport.fcc.gov/sform2000/formC!input.action?form_page=2000C