Broadcasting - Staff Letter addressed to Monica L. Auer (Forum for Research and Policy in Communications)
Ottawa, 10 July 2024
References: 1011-NOC2024-0137
BY E-MAIL
Monica L. Auer, M.A., LL.M.
Executive Director
Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC)
Ottawa, ON
execdir@frpc.net
Subject: Broadcasting Notice of Consultation 2024-137 - Procedural request to publish CRTC summary information about closed-captioning complaints on the public record
To Monica Auer,
This is in response to your 26 June 2024 letter wherein you ask the CRTC to “publish summary information about closed-captioning complaints it has received since 1 January 2014 on the 2024-137 public record before the end of July 2024…”.
CRTC staff would note, as indicated in paragraphs 38 of Broadcasting Notice of Consultation 2024-137 (BNC 2024-137), requests for information were sent in December 2023 to Canadian and foreign online streaming undertakings to gather information about their current closed captioning practices. The responses received from those undertakings include information related to their internal processes for handling complaints, data on captioning complaints received in the past three years, as well as a high-level breakdown as to the subject of those complaints. This information has been posted on the public record of BNC 2024-137.
Also, as explained in BNC 2024-137, and referenced in your letter, when the CRTC receives a closed captioning complaint from a viewer, it requests a response from the broadcaster in question. Therefore, complaints received at the CRTC should be reflected in the information submitted by the undertakings as part of their responses to these requests for information.
As the complaint information would already be reflected on the public record, there would appear not to be any additional benefit to providing the information as proposed on the public record. As such, CRTC staff believes that parties will have the information they need on this subject to make informed submissions on the questions raised in BNC 2024-137.
Yours sincerely,
Nanao Kachi
Director, Social and Consumer Policy
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