Netflix adds captions to 80 percent of streaming content

Netflix announced on Wednesday that a mission to bring captions to its entire streaming library has hit a new milestone.

"In mid-December, we reached our captioning goal for 2011, when more than 80 percent of the hours streamed in the U.S. were of content with captions or subtitles available," the company said in a post at the Netflix blog.

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The figure is a 40 percent increase from last June, claimed Netflix.

"We continue to require captions or subtitles from our providers for all new content where it is available, and we continue to author captions or subtitles for significant new content where it is missing," the company explained, adding that the final 20 percent will prove to be a slower process due to the remaining caption-less material being comprised of unpopular titles.

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Last June, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) sued Netflix, alleging the streaming giant did not provide an equal amount of captioned content to the deaf and hearing impaired.

"We have tried for years to persuade Netflix to do the right thing and provide equal access to all content across all platforms," said Bobbie Beth Scoggins, NAD president. "They chose not to serve our community on an equal basis; we must have equal access to the biggest provider of streamed entertainment."

Netflix only began adding captions to streaming content in 2010, over a year before NAD's lawsuit. Last February, Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt revealed the company had added captions to around 30 percent of its streaming content, along with a new page that lists the supported titles.

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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has mandated closed caption support in analog TVs since 1993 and in digital TV receivers in 2002. An undue burden exemption does exist, however, for companies which would face "significant difficulty or expense" implementing them. (via Netflix Blog)

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