See Flo TV Super Bowl Ad? Flo TV Doesn't Caption!

What is Flo TV?? Flo TV is an example of why we need HR 3101!

Note: Caption Action 2 has contacted Flo TV with questions and is waiting for their response any time now. In the meantime, here is what we know about Flo TV, and more!

What is Flo TV

Flo TV is a mobile TV broadcaster. They broadcast mobile television to cell phones, the back of car headrests, and to a Flo TV Personal Television mobile device. Flo TV was launched in March 2007 as MediaFlo TV by Verizon Wireless and MediaFlo USA. Today they are a subsidiary of Qualcomm. That means they have had since 2007 to make themselves accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing? Did they??

No, they did not! On their FAQ page it says:

Q: Is Closed Captioning available on the FLO TV™ service?

A: No. Currently, the FLO TV service does not support closed captioning. New product features will be announced on our website.

Flo TV is apparently NOT broadcast over the Internet. It is regular digital television broadcast over UHF channels. Flo TV is available on AT&T and Verizon cell phones, and is coming to the iPhone too. A check of the AT&T Mobile TV FAQ page shows nothing about captioning. Neither does Verizon's V Cast Mobile TV FAQ.

Caption Action 2 made a call to Verizon Wireless to confirm the lack of captions. This is the relay conversation:

Verizon: my name is brandy GA
Caption Action 2: hello brandy. i have a question. I hope you can answer my question. if not please put me in touch with someone who can. I am interested in getting Flo TV which is available on Verizon's cell phones. But I am deaf. I need closed captions. Are closed captions available on Flo TV service on Verizon's cell phones qga
Verizon: ok let me pull up some let me pull up some information regarding flo tv so that i can check if closed captions is available GA
Caption Action 2: yes please. i checked their website and it looks like closed captions are not available but i wanted to double check with you. ga
Verizon: i ve looked through my information and unfortunately at this point mobile tv with flo tv does not have available closed captions yet GA

She recommended I consider buying for example, a Blackberry for Verizon service. Blackberry does have closed captioning display capability as explained in this blog post from Inside the Blackberry Accessibility Team. The iPhone can also display closed captions. WGBH Media Access Group provided Caption Action 2 with a table that lists handheld devices and their captioning capability.

Captioning Solutions for Handheld Media and Mobile Devices Comparison Chart

There was no point in calling AT & T too. The answer would be the same - no captions because Flo TV does not have them. This would be true no matter what cell phone carried the Flo TV service.

Instead, Caption Action 2 called Flo TV directly to ask for confirmation of the information on their website. Spoke with the assistant to Bill Stone, Flo TV's president. She said that the information on the website about lack of closed captioning is correct. When Jamie asked about the possibility of re-engineering the Flo TV chip, which is needed for a device to be able to receive Flo TV broadcasts -- to add closed caption decoding circuitry, the assistant said the Flo TV chips were provided by the Qualcomm Tech Department and she did not know anything about engineering. Jamie wasn't satisfied with this response, and asked for more information. That's why Caption Action 2 is still waiting for a response from someone else with Flo TV, as noted above.

Is Flo TV Breaking the Law?

The FCC captioning regulations state that a multichannel video programming distributor is covered by the law. A multichannel video programming distributor is defined in 47 CFR section 76.1000(e). According to the COAT position statement and Justia.com, a multichannel video programming distributor is defined as:"...an entity engaged in the business of making available for purchase, by subscribers or customers, multiple channels of video programming."

Based on this definition and the fact that Flo TV has multiple channels, does this mean that existing law already covers Flo TV? Flo TV is a subscription service, AND they offer multiple "cable" channels such as TLC.

Does HR 3101 Apply to Flo TV?

In addition, a check of the HR 3101 bill found this language:

The term ‘video programming’ means programming provided by, or generally considered comparable to programming provided by, a television broadcast station, even if such programming is distributed over the Internet or by some other means.

Maybe "some other means" could be interpreted to include mobile digital television! Nevertheless, there are still open questions about both the existing law and the proposed law with regard to mobile digital television!

What Can We Do Now?

In the absence of a law to guarantee our right to access to services and devices like Flo TV, we deaf and hard of hearing people must take things into our own hands. We need to make such a public example of Flo TV that the next mobile television service to launch will think twice before leaving the deaf and hard of hearing out!

We can't wait for HR 3101 to be passed. Caption Action 2 suggests that deaf and hard of hearing people who want Flo TV to add captioning capability to their Personal Television device and to their mobile television broadcasts take the following actions:

• Flo TV is on Facebook. Their Facebook URL is http://www.facebook.com/flotv. Become a fan of Flo TV and post complaints about their not having caption display capability!


• Flo TV is on Twitter. Their Twitter URL is http://twitter.com/flotv. If you are on Twitter, post reply requests for captioning to @flotv, and include @deafnessguide so Caption Action 2 can track your Twitter posts.


• Call Flo TV in their California office, at 858 587-1121 (Operator, and ask to be transferred to Flo TV). The Contact Us page is only a form with no phone number.


• Flo TV's website includes a newsroom with a "in the news" section that reprints all the media coverage of Flo TV. Contact the reporters and media sources to let them know that Flo TV does not have closed caption capability. Caption Action 2 will be making some of these contacts ourselves.
  


• Look for blogs that have blogged about FloTV. To find these blogs, use Google's blog search, Search Blogs for Flo TV. Post comments on the blogs, or contact the bloggers, to let them know about the lack of captioning capability on Flo TV.
  

The Bottom Line

Mobile television is starting to really grow! One look at the website/blogsite Reiter's Mobile TV Report shows this! A competitor to Flo TV is MobiTV. A search of their support knowledge base fails to turn up anything about captioning. But there's more! Free mobile digital TV is coming, according to the Los Angeles Times and other news sources. This free mobile television uses the Open Mobile Video Coalition's mobile digital TV standard for local television broadcasts (Flo TV is national broadcast), as reported by TechNewsWorld.com.

We need HR 3101!!!

New on the Blogroll: Who Cosponsors HR 1646, 3024, and 3101

One of the most effective tools for getting cosponsors for HR 3101 has been to contact the offices of Representatives who already cosponsor other bills for deaf and hard of hearing people. Caption Action 2 has combined all the available information about the cosponsors of all three bills into one handy at-a-glance spreadsheet. One look at this spreadsheet and you will see immediately if your representative already cosponsors other bills for deaf and hard of hearing people. This will make it easier for you to make the argument that if your rep cosponsors those bills, he or she should also cosponsor HR 3101!

The new spreadsheet is Who Cosponsors HR 1646, 3024, and 3101. (HR 1646 is the Hearing Aid Tax Credit. HR 3024 is the Medicare Hearing Health Care Enhancement Act.) Republicans are in bold text. As you can see, the other bills have at least some Republican support, while our bill, HR 3101, has none to date!

If you can't view Excel spreadsheets, here's a free Excel viewer.

Rep. Devin Nunes Needs Contact From His People!

Today Caption Action 2 called Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA) office, and spoke with Damon Nelson. Nelson later wrote back:

Thank you very much. We were honestly confused with the call. That was the first time I have ever had a relay call. It was very interesting and a great experience once I understood.

I will pass this on to the Congressman. But, he has a policy of having contact with a constituent before he cosponsors legislation.

So if you live in Fresno County, California, or in Tulare County, California, please contact the office of Rep. Devin Nunes at 202-225-2523 or email damon.nelson@mail.house.gov. Cities that Nunes represents are:

• Clovis
• Dinuba
• Lindsay
• Porterville
• Reedley
• Tulare
• Visalia

If you call Nunes' office and ask for Damon Nelson, don't worry about his reaction to the relay service - as Jamie posted on Twitter, she already broke him in!

Cosponsor 30 joins HR 3101!

Caption Action 2 just welcomed our 30th cosponsor, New Jersey Representative Donald Payne (D-10)!

This doubles the number of cosponsors since the previous version of bill.

Democrats 30 - Republicans 0

Texas Deaf! Help Get Rep. Michael McCaul!

Today Caption Action 2 had a very positive phone conversation with Laura Bunten (emailmccaul@mail.house.gov) in Representative Michael McCaul's office. McCaul is a Republican Congressman from Texas, and his district includes Austin, Texas. Bunten specializes in health issues, and told Caption Action 2 that Rep. McCaul "has been very supportive of deaf/blind issues."

This is the first time that ANY Congress staff person has said that a Congressman was supportive of deaf/blind issues. Therefore this gives us much hope that maybe, just maybe McCaul could be the first Republican to support HR 3101. If you live in McCaul's district, help us by calling his office at 202- 225-2401 and/or emailing Laura Bunten!

Cosponsors 28 and 29 join HR 3101

Just tonight after some relaxing and researching, Caption Action 2 discovered that two more representatives became HR 3101 cosponsors!

Our new cosponsors are Representatives Lloyd Doggett (D-25) from Texas and Carolyn Maloney (D-14) from New York State. We needed a Texas representative and we got one!

This brings up our cosponsor count to 29!

HR 3101 Can't Move Without Boucher! Here's Proof!

Today Caption Action 2 called Representative Mary Bono Mack's (she is on the critical House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet) office. Previously, we had apparently incorrectly reported in "Two Rejections and One Sign of Hope" that Bono Mack's office had said in an email, "At this time, the Congresswoman will not be cosponsoring H.R. 3101." Caption Action 2 thought that meant that she would not support HR 3101. What her office actually meant was something else!

Jamie called Mary Bono Mack's office with the intention of trying to find out what, if anything, could get Mary Bono Mack to change her mind. What followed was a frustrating conversation with Paul Cancienne, that made it very clear what we, the deaf and hard of hearing community, are up against. Bottom line: The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009 CAN NOT move without Rick Boucher, the chairperson of the House Subcommittee, letting it move!!

Cancienne: (ANS) (M) this is paul
Jamie: hello paul this is jamie berke. i am aware already that ms. bono mack has already decided not to support the bill HR 3101 but I was wondering what would get her to change her mind? I'm not giving up yet. If you were deaf like me you would not give up either. ga
Cancienne: reports that the congresswoman opposes or supports hr 3101 are false and premature. the congresswoman has simply chosen not to cosponsor this legislation. there was a blog posting roughly 2 or 3 weeks ago that inaccurately stated the congresswoman's opposition. the congresswoman does have some concerns with this bill but again she has not expressed opposition. our current attitude towards the bill right now is that its not moving thru the legislature process. until it begins to move the congresswoman's lack of formal position and her concerns will remain the same. ga
Jamie: paul, do you know the idiom about the chicken and the egg qga
Cancienne: of course I do. ga
Jamie: that's the problem here. it is a chicken and egg situation. the reason the bill is not moving is because mr. boucher is apparently not letting the bill move. at the same time, there is nobody on the Subcommittee that cosponsors the bill so there is no one to encourage Mr. Boucher to let the bill move. that is the chicken and egg problem right here. ga
Cancienne: mr boucher could move the bill with no cosponsors. hes in control of the committee if he had uh if he wanted the bill to move it would move and then we would begin that process. he doesn't need us so we are where we are.
Cancienne: if this bill begins to move im happy to resume conversations with u and any group whose interested in legislation ga
Jamie: let me try this again. maybe i was not clear enough. what i am saying is that the bill is not moving because of mr. boucher. and furthermore there is nobody on the subcommittee who supports the bill so nobody is pushing mr. boucher to let the bill move. outside of the subcommittee there are representatives signing up to cosponsor the bill. barney frank just signed on two days ago. ga
Cancienne: well maybe [there are] problems with the legislation if no one on the subcommittee is supporting it uh again mr boucher does not need us to cosponsor this bill in order for it to move and to suggest lack of co-sponsorship uh as a sign of
opposition is just incorrect. at this point understand what your trying to say but our position is going to continue to be what it is and that is until this bill begins to move the congress woman is not gonna express support or opposition ga
Jamie: i see. what if the congresswoman's constituents were to contact her? people who live in her own area? would that help qga
Cancienne: it would hold on.. uh let me think about this uh.. any time the congresswoman welcome input form her constituents but her position remains the same. the congresswoman understands the issue and the concerns that all the
sides have ga
Jamie: i see. so it boils down to mr. boucher. until he lets the bill move you won't do anything. is this correct? ga or sk
Cancienne: essentially ga

After that Jamie asked what we can do. Cancienne suggested calling Boucher's office at 202-225-3861 and speaking with/emailing Amy Levine, his counsel on the Subcommittee, amy.levine@mail.house.gov.

This conversation Jamie had with Paul Cancienne shows very clearly that people on the House Subcommittee will not support HR 3101 UNTIL Rick Boucher allows it to move in the Subcommittee! EVEN IF people contact their Congresspeople on the Subcommittee the Representatives on the Subcommittee are totally deferring to Mr. Boucher, and won't do anything without Boucher! Nobody on the Subcommittee is willing to support HR 3101 because they are waiting for Boucher!

It has already been more than seven months since HR 3101 was introduced by Representative Ed Markey. Currently 27 Representatives outside of the Subcommittee have signed on. But, it is now very painfully clear, it does NOT matter how many people sign on to the bill, IF Rick Boucher does not let the bill move!! We must continue the effort to get cosponsors as support will be needed if the bill makes it out of committee, BUT our primary efforts must be focused on Rick Boucher!!!

As Jamie posted on Twitter today, "Why, oh why, does Congress let one person have so much power??? It is unfair!! Our bill is held hostage by Rick Boucher!!"