Jun 182007
This thread on Slashdot points out that Web video isn’t subject to the same closed captioning standards as regular television. Granted, captioning of a the Zen-dachshund-in-a-kiddie-pool video is probably superfluous. But I just looked at some of the TV shows I downloaded from the iTunes store and it doesn’t appear they have any captioning encoded in them. And a quick test of ABC’s streaming episode website reveals that it doesn’t have a captioning option either. The cost of adding captioning can’t be particularly prohibitive (especially for the likes of Disney or Fox), so why not make it available? It can only generate more traffic and/or more downloads, which I thought was the whole point.
