In an agreement that the National Association for the Deaf (NAD) calls "a model for the streaming video industry," Netflix has agreed to caption all of its shows by the year 2014.
The online-streaming giant is already captioning 82 percent of its videos, according to the consent decree filed in court yesterday. Now, it's bound to finish its entire library,
reaching the 90 percent mark in 2013 and 100 percent by 2014.
The company has also
agreed to speedily caption new content. The agreement says that Netflix
will put captions on new content within 30 days by 2014; within 14 days
by 2015; and within 7 days by 2016, "and shall strive to reach a point
at which Conforming Captions are provided simultaneously with launch at
all times."
Not only is this great for the hearing impaired but sometimes I feel the need to have the subtitles displayed when I can't quite understand a characters accent or I want to watch the TV low so as not to wake my wife. Netflix seems to be climbing back up from last year's pricing and branding fiasco (Qwikster); and with Blockbuster all but ashes it is clear they are hear to stay. But with the rapidly escalating price of their online contracts with the major studios I wouldn't be surprised if it gets passed on to us sometime in 2013.
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