
But English as a spoken language can be hard to follow. Many people who are learning English watch television programs. This encourages them to watch it for longer periods, increasing your advertising revenue. These televisions often have the volume turned off, making it hard to follow the program. Closed captioning allows these viewers to follow the program. Many people watch television in an airport or waiting room. Closed captioning lets you appeal to these people, expanding your market base.īut closed captioning works for people who can hear. Roughly 15% of American adults have some trouble hearing. The single biggest benefit of closed captioning is that it allows people who are hard of hearing to follow your program. You can provide both subtitles and closed captions, but you should prioritize captions. Most subtitles include only dialogue, without sound effects or other references.

Subtitles are transcriptions of the audio that audiences can read on screen.īut they are designed for people who don’t understand the program’s original language. It has become a common practice throughout the television industry, and it is becoming popular in Hollywood and on the Internet. Television programs started adding closed captioning in the 1970s. Filmmakers will put in intertitles in order to describe dialogue, which the audience couldn’t hear.

Dialogue is the main component, but background music and sound effects receive written descriptions.Ĭlosed captioning has its roots in silent film. This allows people to follow the action of the program without needing to listen to it.Īll parts of the audio are transcribed. Closed captioning puts the audio portion of a television program or film onto the screen as text.
