Stations Must Bear Cost of Service For Blind

TVNewsCheck

The CBS O&Os and some of the network’s affiliates don’t have to worry about a likely congressional mandate forcing them to offer programming with video descriptions for the blind. Theyre already doing it.

For the past several year, CBS has been attaching an extra audio channel with descriptions to a handful of primetime shows–currently, the lineup includes CSI: Las Vegas, NCIS, NCIS: LA and Criminal Minds–and the stations have been broadcasting them without much trouble.

“CBS offered video descriptions before the digital transition and we… passed it through on the SAP channel for years,” says Jerry Michel, VP and director of technology at CBS’s Tampa affiliate, WTSP.More…