[Electronics-talk] producers say yes to audio description on netflix

[The weird writer]

from the accessible netflix project website.


it’s quite an astonishing feat at what information you find out when you 
actually dig deep into something and do a tad bit of investigating. Way 
back, Netflix had made a valiant case that it wasn’t up to them to 
produce the audio description track for TV shows and movies, and that 
they couldn’t legally do anything with the content because they didn’t 
hold any of the rights to the content that has audio description tracks, 
and that would need to be taken up with the media producers of the TV 
show. They are correct, but I wondered if they thought I was going to 
drop it at that. I didn’t. I decided to find out for myself just how 
much Netflix holds in terms of decisions.

The search, hunting, and getting the right contacts took me forever to 
do. First I had to try and find a show that had audio description on TV, 
and then I had to check and see if that show was on Netflix. I didn’t 
want to do a show that didn’t have audio description on Netflix, nor do 
a show that had audio description on TV but wasn’t on Netflix because 
then the response would take even longer because they’d have to work out 
licensing and the like, and, since they wouldn’t have audio description 
then that would add another complication to the mix explaining what 
audio description is.

With that in mind, I knew that finding a TV show that had audio 
description, and aired on both TV and Netflix was the easiest method to 
go that would definitely get me an answer, either way.

Finding that show, though, was easier said than done. With a WordPad 
document open and NVDA turned off, I looked through every entry in the 
audio description project listing only to find out that a few were on 
Netflix, and even then I may have missed some. The research took me an 
hour to complete on that end.

Once I had the shows, I needed to find the creator, also known as 
producer of the show. That swallowed up an additional two hours of my 
time because not everything wasn’t on Wikipedia.

With the shows Family Guy, The Office, Glee, and others in mind, I set 
out to find some contact information. This was the hardest of all, 
taking up two days to do, after repeat attempts, mind you, but I will 
get to that later.

Naturally, I started off by calling corporate offices of networks like 
FOX, NBC, etc. in most cases; a generic operator couldn’t transfer me, 
nor give me emails, nor give me phone numbers. Some didn’t have it in 
their database, others weren’t allowed, and others kept giving me a 
generic email, which I didn’t want to, have. I called for a specific 
reason and that reason was to get answers.

I tried sounding as business as possible but I guess when you have a 
stutter; many don’t take you seriously or think you’ve fallen very high 
and hit your head. Some operators cut me off, hanging up on me, leaving 
me no choice but to call using the IP relay service where I was hung up 
on for yet another day and a half. Usually when I call with the IP relay 
service, people on the other end have to speak slower. They’ve disabled 
the option for me to place HCO calls, hearing carry over, where I hear 
everything the other person is saying. I don’t know why they 
discontinued that feature, but now I have to use the IP relay service 
just like a deaf person. I’m just a person with a speech disability but 
TV station operators think it’s a scam, and they hang up on me, or speak 
too fast and then they hang up on me, again.

The third day, I have managed to get someone who’s in charge of Family 
guy, out of all 56 calls I have made, I had only one lead and so I 
followed up accordingly. She wishes to remain nameless, and she didn’t 
give me permission to copy her email, but she said that yes, Seth did 
have the rights to the show, hence, he negotiates licenses. I explained 
my result with Netflix, and explained my situation via email, as that’s 
my best mode of communication. She actually was surprised that it didn’t 
have audio description on Netflix, and she wondered why. Just to make 
things better on myself, I forwarded her the email sent by Netflix 
staff. She immediately responded with a urgency to push this Netflix 
woman, and explain that this show is on TV with audio description 
already, and make it very clear that the audio description has been 
produced, and also make it VERY clear that they’d be more than happy to 
license, or anything else to help. So, I sent the Netflix staff this email.

*Hi XXX. This is Robert Kingett again. Recently I sent you an email 
about the availability of audio description on instant streaming 
services. You pointed out that it’s up to the producers to provide audio 
description. There are already shows on TV and movies with audio 
description, and who are willing to provide the audio description to 
Netflix. Family Guy, a show that is both on Netflix and on TV, offers 
described episodes after season 10. Since Family Guy offers audio 
description on TV already, I’d like to know how Netflix would work with 
the producer of the show to also provide audio description for instant 
streaming. Family Guy airs on FOX with audio description. Knowing this, 
how can we move forward in regards to providing audio description on 
instant streaming? Since the producers are providing audio description 
on TV already isn’t it up to Netflix to negotiate audio description on 
their systems and services if the audio description is already provided 
for other mediums the show airs on?*

The reply that I received was that, in that case, FOX holds the control 
over the audio description, not the producers, since the audio 
description is produced. FOX airs the show bundled with the audio 
description so the producers wouldn’t have any say so. Just to check her 
facts, I emailed 13 other Netflix email addresses I had collected. No 
response shot into my inbox from any of them, and it has been a week 
since the last email. Since FOX airs the show, they have all the rights, 
so I’d need to talk to someone at FOX. She didn’t even give me a name of 
any sort. I didn’t want to be treated like a joke anymore, so I 
contacted my Family Guy contact who told me that she’d look, and dig, 
and find out who I’d need to speak to and she promised that she would 
give me a direct contact, even number. So, I guess now we just wait on 
the big reveal. I don’t know when that will happen but I’m sure it won’t 
be far off before I have a definitive answer. At least someone is taking 
me seriously, but with very few leads, the worry is mounting. Will my 
efforts be in vein? I hope not. I do wish though, that I had someone 
helping me make these calls. People really don’t like IP relay but what 
other options do I have?

The good news, we’ve learned something, the bad, we need to learn more 
about the vast world of licensing. We will keep looking, however.