How Will Video Descriptions Affect TV Stations?

Within six years, the Federal Communications Commission will require that television stations in the top 60 US markets provide video descriptions on primetime programming so that TV shows are more fully accessible by the blind and other visually-impaired people.

The descriptions of characters, scenes and action are inserted between the dialog of shows. TV stations should be able to pass through the extra audio channel containing the video descriptions without much trouble. However, some stations may face additional expenses in upgrading their switching and infrastructure. But Eric Small, the founder and chief technology officer of Modulation Sciences, cautions that there are other potentially costly elements in the new law, namely requirements for audible emergency alerts and closed captions on programming streamed on the Internet. Just what they mean for broadcasters won't be known until the FCC writes its implementing rules.