COAT Applauds Moves to Expand Video Description in UK

December 27, 2009:  COAT applauds International Friend of COAT, the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB), for keeping the pressure on for more  audio or video description in the U.K. See RNIB video description campaign update here.  RNIB asserts that the current proposal that 10% of programs broadcast on digital TV must be audio described is too low. RNIB points out -- in response to proposals by OfCom, the British regulatory authority -- that:

--the cost of description has lessened steadily by 25% over the last 5 years;

--the benefits of providing more description outweigh financial costs to broadcasters;

--most broadcasters are already providing more than 10 percent of programming with video description;

--by the end of 2012, every registered blind and partially sighted person will have been offered TV equipment that receives description as part of the digital TV switchover;

--small broadcasters are already exempt from the requirement;

--the number of people with sight loss is increasing;

--Ofcom must meet targets around media literacy and  European Union media directives.

For more information, contact RNIB.

COAT notes we are still waiting for the U.S. Congress to give authority to the FCC to reinstate a very modest requirement for video description on TV in the U.S. Legislation introduced in June 2009, H.R. 3101, would do this!