We recently reported on the Commission’s reversal of almost 300 closed captioning exemptions dating back some five years. That action has now made it into the Federal Register – not once, not twice, but in three separate entries. One entry merely reflects the actual reversals – presumably this notice constitutes the starting gun for any of the presumably disappointed former exemptees who might want to seek reconsideration or review. A second entry expressly announces the Commission’s interim policy with respect to the term ‘‘economically burdensome’’ for purposes of evaluating requests for individual closed captioning exemptions. And the third entry solicits comments on the Commission’s proposal to continue to apply a four-part test to determine whether a request for individual exemption satisfies the “economically burdensome” standard. Additionally, in order to conform to changes in the Communications Act, the language of Section 79.1(f) would be changed to delete the passé term “undue burden” and to sub in “economically burdensome”.
The effective date of the first two entries is November 1, 2011 (the date of Federal Register publication) The publication of the third entry establishes the comment and reply comment deadlines with respect to the proposed changes. Comments on those changes are due by December 1, 2011; reply comments by December 16.
