Closed Captions en español. Live Captioning Quality in Spanish-language Newscasts in the U.S.

Abstract

The broadcasting landscape in the United States includes a limited number of Spanish-speaking networks that serve the Hispanic community. As part of the accessibility regulations in place, the Federal Communications Commission issued the first closed captioning quality rules in 2014, which apply in the same manner to English and Spanish pre-recorded and live programming. Over the last few years, comprehensive studies assessing the quality of closed captioned broadcasts have begun to emerge, either led by or in collaboration with Media Accessibility researchers. These kinds of projects have shed some light on the strengths and weaknesses of current live closed captions, and have gathered valuable data that may be used to improve the training of practitioners. This article presents the main findings of the first study aimed at assessing the quality of the closed captions that accompany Spanish-language programming in the United States. By focusing on the national newscasts, it discusses the completeness, placement, accuracy and synchronicity of the closed captioning in Spanish currently delivered on television. Results show excellent completeness and placement, an average captioning speed aligned to the existing guidelines, and improvable delay and accuracy under the NER model.