As a result of a little noted FCC vote earlier this month, TV stations will soon be required to publicize "contacts" with whom the public can discuss closed captioning.

Expected to go into effect late this year or early next, the new rules require every TV stations and other "video programming distributor" to provide:

• The name, phone number and e-mail address of a staff person capable of handling "immediate" captioning problems during normal business hours (such as technical issues).
  
• The name, phone number and e-mail address of the staff person "with primary responsibility" for captioning issues generally and for handling complaints.

The contact information must be posted on the station's Web site (and updated within 10 days of any changes) and filed with the chief of the FCC's Disability Rights Office or e-mailed to: closedcaptioning_POC@fcc.gov. With the info, the FCC will create a database of TV station contacts on its Web site.

The new closed captioning rules, the text of which was released on Nov. 7, also revise the procedures for filing complaints and the FCC's disposition of complaints.

Under current rules, a complaint regarding captioning of non-emergency programming must be filed initially with the TV station prior to the end of the quarter in which the violation is alleged to have occurred.

Under the new rules, a complaint may be filed initially (by e-mail, fax, or letter) within 60 days with either the TV station (or third-party programming creator) or with the FCC.

If a complaint is filed with the FCC, the agency will forward it to the TV station.

In either case, the station gets just 30 days to respond.

If a complaint is filed with a TV station regarding programming over which it does not exercise "editorial control" (i.e., some third-party distributor), then the TV station must forward the complaint to the "appropriate party" within seven days and that party shall respond within 30 days of the forwarding date.

The FCC's recent decision included a "declaratory ruling," which confirmed that the captioning rules apply to all digital channels (not merely HD) that do not qualify for the captioning exemption and that programming from third parties containing captioning must be "passed through," even if that programming would otherwise be exempt.

Finally, the Nov. 7 decision launches another rulemaking that seeks to further refine its captioning rules in the era of digital "multicasting."

Among the questions: Should the current captioning exemption, adopted in 1997, for any "channel" with less than $3 million in gross annual revenues, be eliminated, increased or otherwise changed to some other metric?

The proceeding also asks whether a digital broadcaster's "entire digital operation" should be considered, for captioning purposes, as one "channel." Comments will be due 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.

Additional information about the FCC's captioning rules can be easily located on the FCC's Web site, www.fcc.gov, and click on "Closed Captioning," the third link from the top in the left margin "list of topics." You may also call FCC captioning specialist Amy Brown at 202-418-2799.

Robert Thompson is a communications attorney, of counsel, at the Washington-based firm of Smithwick & Belendiuk. He can be reached at 202-363-4409 or bthompson@fccworld.com.