Did you know that on August 25, 2011, the FCC adopted guidelines to enact the video description provisions of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act ?

As of July 1, 2012, local affiliates of the four major television networks ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox are required by law to provide approximately four hours of described programming per week- that adds up to 50 hours of prime time and/ or children's programming per quarter from the top 25 local affiliate network markets. In addition video described programming will be required of the top 60 local affiliate markets by July 1, 2015.

Similar quotas have been adopted by the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, TBS, USA, and TNT with approximately four hours of video described programming scheduled per week.

Subscription television platforms with 50,000 users or more are also required to carry video description.

According to the FCC website, video description can be accessed through the "secondary audio" feature, which some TV controls identify as "SAP" or "secondary audio program." The secondary audio may also be identified as a language feature, such as "Spanish" or "SPA," because it is also used to provide Spanish or other language translations of English language TV programs."
 
Click here for a list of the top 25 local affiliate TV markets.

Check the FCC website to learn more about availability of video described programming and for a list of projected described shows.