After strengthening its foothold in Europe, Ericsson ERIC is geared up to expand its closed captioning business in U.S. and beyond. The company disclosed the rollout of a closed captioning service in the nation via creation of a hub in Atlanta, GA.
Through this to-be-developed hub, Ericsson will offer closed captioning and video description services to both domestic and international clients effective from this month. The company’s move is strategized at meeting the new Federal Communications Commission (‘FCC’) regulations related to closed captioning service.
Closed Captioning in Brief
Closed captioning is a service offered for displaying text on a television, video screen, or other visual display mediums to give additional or interpretive information to viewers. The service was originally introduced for enhancing viewership for individuals having hearing disabilities.
FCC issued new guidelines in 2014 to enhance the quality of closed captioning service as well as avail even and precise closed-captioned communications across the extensive programming network.
Some key highlights outlined, related to English and Spanish-language programs broadcasting were – video distributors and broadcasters should meet specific guidelines concerning accuracy, synchronicity, comprehensiveness and position of captioning for online video content (as of Jan 15, 2015); straight-lift clips, means clips taken straight from a program and posted onto the Internet, should be captioned (as of Jan1, 2016); and montages, where a single file contains several straight lift video clips, must be captioned.
Ericsson: Closed Captioning Leader in Europe Now Heading to U.S
Being a closed captioning leader in Europe, Ericsson has delivered 200,000 hours/ year of captions for over 30 years. Impressively, the company is also the world’s largest provider of TV audio description and sign-language translation.
With regard to its services in U.S., Ericsson will deliver closed captioning services via its in-house enterprise-level, schedule-driven software platform. Notably, the platform, which is a core part of Ericsson’s Broadcast and Media Services portfolio, made its debut in 2014 and supports closed captioning in several languages. This platform is presently employed to offer both live and offline captioning services for major broadcasters of U.K such as the BBC and Sky.
Additionally, going forward in the coming few months, Ericsson intends to launch video description services for vision-impaired audiences in the U.S.
Bottom-Line
We believe the abovementioned move is at par with Ericsson’s plan of strengthening its foothold in the broadcasting and media industry. The company has been undertaking significant initiatives and extending its technology to broadcasters for merging video and mobility. Ericsson’s latest step will create major value for U.S. broadcasters and platform operators by enhancing viewership of their content across masses.
Ericsson currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the industry include InterDigital, Inc. IDCC, ViaSat Inc. VSAT and Aruba Networks, Inc. ARUN. While ViaSat and InterDigital carry a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Aruba Networks has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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