From Victory to Failure in Four Years!

Four years ago, the new re-purposed Caption Action 2 decided to target what was then the #1 show online, Annoying Orange. Caption Action 2 thought that if it could get the #1 show to caption that it would send a message to lower-ranked shows and they would caption too. (How little we knew then!).

So we started our targeted actions. Tweets. Facebook posts. Even a facebook page just for trying to get this show captioned. Our efforts got the attention of someone. That someone was a volunteer captioner. Annoying Orange began captioning through the dedicated efforts of this volunteer. This was our first web TV captioning victory, four years ago.

These were our blog posts four years ago:

1. Help Get The Annoying Orange to Caption! - 9/30/10
2. Number One Web Series is Now Captioned!  - 11/3/10

Over the next four yeas, that volunteer became a professional with his own captioning service. Annoying Orange continued to be captioned - whether volunteer or professional, we don't know, but we think professional. Then, a few months ago, that former volunteer began working for another captioning service. Then the captioning on Annoying Orange stopped. Just like that, it stopped overnight. The last captioned episode was published May 30, 2014.  (Even before that, episodes started to be missed here and there.) No replacement captioner.

(Source: Annoying Orange videos page)

There has been no captioning since then on Annoying Orange. It is no longer as hot as it was four years ago, but still gets a healthy number of views online. Caption Action 2 tweeted and posted facebook messages, but no dice. It didn't work. Annoying Orange totally ignored our tweets and facebook messages demanding that they resume captioning.

Now what? This is a perfect example of how that gap - not requiring captions on original web TV programming - in the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (21st CVAA) hurts us! Web TV producers can legally stop captioning whenever they want, and "tough luck" to us. No more captions? Oh, that's just too bad for you, you poor deaf and hard of hearing people.

Our first victory is now a FAILURE. It will remain a failure unless YOU help get it back, send a LOUD message to the producer of Annoying Orange that we will NOT tolerate the loss of captioning and it MUST resume immediately, AND they must go back and caption the uncaptioned videos!

YouTube page: .youtube.com/user/realannoyingorange
Contact: twitter.com/annoyingorange
Facebook: .facebook.com/annoyingorange
Discussion (you will need a youtube account): youtube.com/user/realannoyingorange/discussion
(Comments can also be posted on any video)

It is very important to make producers understand that captioning is not a luxury that they can drop whenever they feel like it!

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Captioned Web TV Shows Officially Up for a Streamy Award!

The following closed captioned or subtitled shows are officially up for a Streamy Award (full list is at http://www.streamys.org/2014/08/4th-annual-streamy-award-nominees/).  The Streamy Awards will stream live on September 7, 2014 at www.streamys.org. This is the web TV equivalent of the Academy Awards, so it is a very big deal. Last year, 7 million people watched; this year because of expanded categories, it could be as many as 10 million. It is not yet known if the Streamy awards live broadcast will be closed captioned.

Unfortunately, this list is short compared to the total number of shows up for a Streamy Award (more than 60). If you want to help get more nominees/award-winners captioned, join Caption Action 2 (facebook.com/groups/captionaction2)  on Facebook! On the Facebook group, the full list has been broken down into a series of ten posts with links and contact information for shows that are not captioning or subtitling.

Anothony Eats America - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2014/04/anthony-eats-america.html (Food and Cuisine)

ASAP Science - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2012/09/asapscience.html (Science and Education)

BlackBox TV Presents - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2013/03/blackbox-tv.html (Actor in a Drama, Directing)

Blank on Blank - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2014/08/blank-on-blank.html (Animated)

Blue - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2013/07/blue.html (Actress in a Drama)

Bravest Warriors - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2013/04/bravest-warriors.html (Animated)

Chosen - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2013/04/chosen.html(Drama)

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2013/04/comedians-in-cars-getting-coffee.html (Non-fiction or reality)

Convos with My 2 Year Old - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2014/05/convos-with-my-2-year-old.html (Kids and Family, Actor in a Comedy)

Emma Approved - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2013/10/emma-approved.html (Actress in a Comedy, Actor in a Comedy)
Fatherhood - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2014/04/fatherhood.html (Kids and Family)

Funny or Die - (a Between 2 Ferns episode) http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2014/03/funny-or-die.html (Collaboration)

Husbands - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2012/08/husbands.html(Writing)

Kids React - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2014/07/react.html (KIds and Family, Editing)

Lauren - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2013/07/lauren.html (Drama, Actress in a Drama, Directing)

Lizzie Bennet Diaries - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2013/04/lizzie-bennet-diaries.html (Drama, Actress in a Drama, Actor in a Drama)

Mental Floss - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2014/08/mental-floss.html (Science and Education)

My Ink - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-ink.html (Sports)

Out with Dad - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2012/08/out-with-dad.html (Actress in a Drama)

PBS Idea Channel - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2014/06/pbs-idea-channel.html (Non-fiction or reality)

Platoon of Power Squadron - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2014/03/platoon-of-power-squadron.html (indie)

Simon's Cat - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2014/08/simons-cat.html(Animated)

SourceFed - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2014/07/sourcefed.html(News and Current Events)

YouTube Nation - http://captionedwebtv.blogspot.com/2014/05/youtube-nation.html (News and Current Events)

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Sesame Street's YouTube Channel Stopped Captioning a Year Ago

We're familiar with the Sesame Street show since we were kids. They're still on TV today, and they've got their own YouTube channel.

But, the captioning stopped after August 5, 2013.

The last captioned episode featured the Cookie Monster on August 5, 2013. The next episode was August 20 and it did not have captions.

Could he have eaten all the newer captions since then? We hope not.

Sesame Street is a Streamy Award nominee this year! Which makes it even more important for them to start captioning again.

http://youtube.com/user/sesamestreet

Note: You will need to go back a full year on the Videos page to find the last captioned video.

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Fake Captioning Throughout TYT Network!

After learning that the fake-captioning Sam Seder Majority Report show is part of the TYT Network (The Young Turks Network), Caption Action 2 decided to investigate the ENTIRE TYT Network to see if any others in the network were fake captioning. We found a handful of shows that have been, or are STILL fake captioning. Some are even unintentionally posting the entire autocaption transcript on the screen when they try to create fake captions (example is below).

First, some history. The Young Turks YouTube channel was fake captioning (as we reported in May 2014 with a followup in June 2014) up until June 6, 2014. Caption Action 2 did some things behind the scenes that may have resulted in their stopping the fake captioning. We wondered if any other YouTube channels are fake captioning, and the first clue we had that the TYT Network was engaged in fake captioning was last week when we discovered the fake captions on the Sam Seder Majority Report.

Update 3: It looks like both Pop Trigger and What the Flick have also stopped. Fake captioning was removed from the most recent fake captioned video on What the Flick, and Pop Trigger has not fake captioned for awhile.

Update 2: On Wednesday night 8/20, we discovered that another channel featured in this blog post, the Rubin Report, had removed the fake captioning from its most recent fake captioned videos.

Update: On Monday night 8/18, we discovered that the last channel featured in this blog post, Absurdity Today, had removed the fake captioning from its most recent fake captioned videos.

Now here is what we found in our investigation!

Today!

The Rubin Report

The first fake-captioned video, "Can you guess the fastest growing chains in America?" was published today, August 17, 2014. On the channel's About page, it says "The Rubin Report is a proud partner of The Young Turks Network."

Update: The Rubin Report apparently has stopped. A check of their video listing on Wednesday night found they had removed the fake captioning from the above-featured videos.

Also today!

The Point with Ana Kasparian

While we were writing the draft of this blog post, they published another video with fake captions. The first video in the screenshot was published an hour ago on today, August 17, 2014. The channel's About page indicates the association with The Young Turks.

One week ago:

Pop Trigger

The video "The Craziest One Direction Fans" was published August 5, 2014 with fake captions. Sometimes the fake captions don't even display because for some reason, the browser gets overwhelmed. Pop Trigger is listed on the TYT Shows page under Culture and Education.

One month ago:

What the Flick

This channel posts about five movie review videos one day each week. The first fake captioned video in the screenshot, a review of Boyhood, is from July 10, 2014. An interesting thing about this one: when you start the video, you can see the entire autocaption transcript on the screen! Wow! Someone really messed up on this one! They messed up so badly that for the rest of the video, there are no fake captions displaying. That plus it seems to cause the browser to become unresponsive for a short period of time.

Finally, three months ago:

Absurdity Today

This channel posts about two videos a month, meaning it is not pumping out videos. The first fake captioned video in the screenshot is from April 29, 2014, which is before The Young Turks stopped their fake captioning.  Absurdity Today is listed on the TYT Network shows page under Network Partners. We are unsure if this channel has stopped their fake captioning.

Update: Absurdity Today apparently has stopped. A check of their channel Monday night found that they had apparently removed the fake captions from the above videos. The disappearance of the fake captions happened in 24 hours or less! New screenshot showing same videos without CC symbol:

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Fake Captioning Returns?!?!

Just as we were about to head to bed tonight, we discovered another YouTube channel that is apparently doing fake captioning! The last one we blogged about, the Young Turks, apparently got so much flack that they stopped captioning altogether. But here is another one doing it! Watch these videos from Majority Report with Sam Seder:

http://www.youtube.com/user/SamSeder

Update 8/20: the fake captioning on the Sam Seder Majority Report has stopped.

The above screenshot is taken from the video titled "Victoria Jackson Loses County Race But Her Campaign Ad is the Gift That Keeps on Giving," posted to YouTube on August 8, 2014. A check of the video listing page indicates they started doing this about two weeks ago.

Just like previously with the Young Turks, the video listing page displays the CC symbol but watching the videos shows that nobody has bothered to edit the captions! They clearly just took the autocaption transcript and re-uploaded it to YouTube to generate fake captions!

http://www.youtube.com/user/SamSeder/videos

We thought that the Young Turks was the only YouTube channel that has done or is doing this, but apparently they are NOT!! We MUST, MUST, MUST put an end to this! Send tweets, post facebook messages, contact Google, do whatever it takes to get the word out about this and make it stop immediately!

twitter.com/SamSeder
facebook.com/MajorityReport

Whenever Caption Action 2 finds out about fake captioning, we will post a blog post about it! The message to web TV producers must be, fake captioning WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.

Update: Captions for YouTube did a blog post on this topic earlier, explaining that fake captioning does not help search engine results: http://www.captionsforyoutube.com/blog/posts/15

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Disney's New Muppet Webseries Isn't Captioned!

Disney recently came out with a new webseries, Disney Drive On With The Muppets. In order to see the videos, you have to sign in to see them. If you don't have an account, you will need to create one, and it's free!

Look closely at the below video in the upper right corner at the symbol within the red circle. That's one of the videos that are captioned. The Muppet webseries videos aren't captioned.

For those of you who wish to contact Disney Movies Anywhere, at the bottom of the screen of videos is Connect with "Contact Us" and "Closed Captioning Inquiries." Under "Closed Captioning Inquiries" is the name of a contact - Jody Belliveau, Senior Manager, Product Development. Email this person or use their form to send your message.

http://www.disneymoviesanywhere.com/discover

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