Federal Communications Commission	"FCC  XX-XXX"


STATEMENT OF
CHAIRMAN BRENDAN CARR

Re: 	Closed Captioning of Video Programming, Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc. Petition for Rulemaking; Delete, Delete, Delete, CG Docket No. 05-231; GN Docket No. 25-133.
Back in 2016, stakeholders asked the FCC to streamline closed captioning registration and certification requirements for producers that provide programs exclusively to public, educational, and governmental access or PEG channels.  At the time, they raised concerns that requiring volunteers and community groups – such as Cub Scouts or gospel choirs – that were exempt from captioning rules to comply with those underlying obligations was both burdensome and needless.  Stakeholders also asked the FCC to relieve program owners from compliance with captioning rules when their programs on linear networks were distributed by MVPDs, since the network themselves already certify compliance. 
In the agency’s Delete, Delete, Delete proceeding, commenters raised these concerns again.  And today, 10 years later, we finally take action.  We have voted to eliminate these unnecessarily duplicative requirements, saving hundreds of thousands of programmers a total of nearly $2.5 million annually in needless regulatory costs.  We’ve concluded from the record that this action would have no negative impact on captioning availability or quality.  This item continues the Commission’s work to eliminate outdated rules and minimize duplicative obligations that provide no consumer benefit.
Thank you to staff for their hard work on this item, including Eduard Bartholme, Lisa Edwards, Robert Aldrich, Suzy Rosen Singleton, Michael Scott, Joshua Mendelsohn, and Ike Ofobike, as well as staff from the Offices of Communications Business Opportunities, Economics and Analytics, Enforcement Bureau, General Counsel, and Media Bureau.

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