CBC Quality Assurance & Compliance 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under FCC regulations, which entity bears primary responsibility for ensuring that captioning meets quality standards — the programmer or the distributor?
- The distributor alone
- The programmer alone
- Both the programmer and distributor share responsibility (Correct answer)
- The captioning vendor bears sole responsibility
Correct answer: Both the programmer and distributor share responsibility
FCC rules place captioning obligations on both video programming distributors and video programming owners/programmers, creating shared responsibility.
Question 2: A viewer files a captioning complaint with the FCC about a cable program. What must the viewer do before filing with the FCC?
- File a complaint directly with the FCC without any prior steps
- Contact the video programming distributor first and allow time for a response (Correct answer)
- Contact the captioning vendor directly
- File with the Department of Justice first
Correct answer: Contact the video programming distributor first and allow time for a response
FCC rules require viewers to first contact the video programming distributor and give them time to respond before escalating to the FCC.
Question 3: Which of the following would be considered an 'undue burden' exemption under FCC captioning rules?
- A major network affiliate that claims captioning is too expensive
- A small cable operator serving fewer than 5,000 subscribers that demonstrates financial hardship (Correct answer)
- A streaming service with over 1 million subscribers
- Any broadcaster during a live breaking news event
Correct answer: A small cable operator serving fewer than 5,000 subscribers that demonstrates financial hardship
Small cable operators serving under a certain subscriber threshold may qualify for an undue burden exemption if they can demonstrate that captioning costs create genuine financial hardship.
Question 4: A real-time captioner's output shows 97% accuracy during the first hour but drops to 91% in the second hour. What QA action is most appropriate?
- Ignore it since the average is still above 95%
- Flag the second-hour segment for review and investigate captioner fatigue or audio quality issues (Correct answer)
- Immediately replace the captioner mid-broadcast
- File an FCC complaint against the broadcaster
Correct answer: Flag the second-hour segment for review and investigate captioner fatigue or audio quality issues
A significant accuracy drop warrants post-broadcast QA review to identify whether captioner fatigue, audio conditions, or technical issues caused the decline.
Question 5: Under the CEA-708 digital captioning standard, which feature is NOT available in the older EIA-608 standard?
- Caption on/off toggle
- Multiple caption windows displayed simultaneously (Correct answer)
- Basic text color options
- Caption delay adjustment
Correct answer: Multiple caption windows displayed simultaneously
CEA-708 supports multiple simultaneous caption windows and other advanced features not possible under the older analog EIA-608 standard.
Question 6: When conducting a caption quality audit, a QA reviewer finds that sound effects are consistently omitted. This violates which principle?
- Synchrony
- Placement
- Completeness (Correct answer)
- Verbatim accuracy
Correct answer: Completeness
Completeness requires that non-speech audio information essential to understanding the program, such as significant sound effects, be included in captions.
Question 7: Which organization publishes the primary voluntary industry guidelines that complement FCC captioning regulations in the U.S.?
- NAB (National Association of Broadcasters)
- CTA (Consumer Technology Association) (Correct answer)
- NCRA (National Court Reporters Association)
- SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers)
Correct answer: CTA (Consumer Technology Association)
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) publishes key voluntary standards such as CEA-708 that govern digital closed captioning technology in the U.S.
CBC Quality Assurance & Compliance 3
Under FCC regulations, which entity bears primary responsibility for ensuring that captioning meets quality standards — the programmer or the distributor?