Closed captioning services for live broadcast television

How the broadcast arrangement works

For a typical live newscast, for example:

TV station → live program audio → captioning provider → caption data → station's caption encoder → broadcast signal → viewer's TV

The FCC's rules specifically recognize real-time captioning vendors and set expectations around accuracy, synchronization, completeness, placement, qualified captioners, technical redundancy, and rapid response to captioning problems.www.law.cornell.edu

The important distinction is that the television station/network remains responsible for complying with the FCC's captioning requirements, even when it contracts the actual captioning work to an outside vendor. The FCC rules also encourage programmers to include performance requirements and quality verification in agreements with captioning vendors.www.law.cornell.edu

If you're looking for vendors specifically for a U.S. local TV station, cable network, or national broadcast network, I can also give you a more comprehensive list of 10–20 providers, with their technologies, geographic coverage, and contact/sales information.

2. VITAC

A major captioning provider specializing in television and media. Offers real-time and prerecorded captioning, making it a good candidate for broadcasters with ongoing programming or large captioning volumes.curlie.org+1

Website:vitac.com

3. Media Captioning Services (MCS)

Specializes in real-time closed captioning for local and cable television news networks. Its experience with live news broadcasts makes it particularly relevant to TV stations and news operations.www.mediacaptioning.com

Website:mediacaptioning.com

4. Aberdeen Broadcast Services

Provides live and prerecorded closed captioning for broadcasters, educators, ministries, and media producers. Worth considering if you need a provider that can handle both live broadcasts and captioned program files.aberdeen.io

Website:aberdeen.io

5. Riverside Captioning Company

Specifically advertises certified broadcast captioners for live television. Also provides post-production captioning and webcast services. A useful option to compare for human-captioned live programming.closed-captioning.com

Website:closed-captioning.com

6. Caption Connection

Offers human real-time broadcast captioning for live TV news, sports, and other events, with captions sent to an encoder for display on the broadcast. Worth investigating for specialized live coverage or additional captioning capacity.www.thecaptionconnection.com

Website:thecaptionconnection.com

7. CaptionLabs

Provides closed captioning and digital delivery of captioned programming to TV stations and networks. It is especially worth considering if you need a combination of live services and prerecorded program captioning; confirm live staffing and coverage for your specific workflow.captionlabs.com

Website:captionlabs.com

How I'd narrow the shortlist

These are suggested starting points based on their advertised service areas, not a verified ranking of pricing or performance.

Questions to ask before requesting a quote

1. Captioning method: Do you provide human stenographic captioning, voice writing, automated speech recognition, or a combination?
2. Delivery and integration: Can you send real-time caption data directly to our existing broadcast caption encoder or master control system?
3. Coverage: Do you provide nights, weekends, holidays, and 24/7 breaking-news support?
4. Reliability: What backup procedures, captioner handoffs, and technical support are available if the feed drops?
5. Quality: What accuracy and caption-delay targets do you contractually guarantee, and how are they measured?
6. Pricing: Is pricing based on hours, program length, number of channels, or a monthly service agreement?

For U.S. television, also ask how the provider supports your FCC caption-quality obligations, including accuracy, synchronization, completeness, and placement.www.law.cornell.edu

One question that would help me refine this list: Are you looking for a vendor to provide captions for a local TV station or broadcast network, or are you a company developing the captioning technology itself? That distinction will help identify the best-fit providers.