TVO is seeking a Service Provider for professional Closed Captioning services, with a proven track record of high quality service and reliability. TVO broadcasts 100% closed captioning for all programming, promos and sponsorship spots. The majority of captioning required to be created for TVO is in the style of pop-on.
TVO also provides closed captioning for its websites. If captioning was created for On-Air broadcasts it is also used for the asset if it is published to the websites. Some content is created only for the web in which captioning at the same high level of quality as broadcast is required. TVO’s website for the Independent Learning Center (ILC) has some French courses that will require the videos to be captioned in French.
TVO English captioning numbers for last fiscal (April 1, 2016 – March 31, 2017) were approximately 2,998 assets which equaled about 345 hours annually. Out of the 2,998 assets 597 (229hrs) were roll-up and 2401 (116hrs) were pop-on. In addition we had several special projects that required an additional 455 files captioned that came to 158 hours. The captioning numbers for the previous fiscal (April 1, 2015 – March 31, 2016) were approximately 1,665 assets which equaled about 348 hours annually. Out of the 1,665 assets 504 (276hrs) were roll-up and 1161 (154hrs) were pop-on. These volumes are a guideline only, and could be subject to change.
French captioning needs for this fiscal would be approximately 1200 videos for a total of about 100 hours. Going forward each following year it is estimated that the French captioning requirement would be approximately 40 videos for a total of about 4 hours. These volumes are a guideline only, and could be subject to change.
Current Workflow
TVO’s Enterprise Media Management (EMMa) coordinators upload the video proxies to TVO’s FTP server.
The EMMa coordinators then send an email to the service provider with list of assets ready to be captioned. The list includes the house ID, title, duration, if the captioning is to be Pop-On or Roll-Up, due date and if asset is for AODA (TVO websites) or Broadcast. The EMMa Coordinators will attach any available scripts to the email to assist the Closed Captioning Service provider.
The Captioning Service provider receives the email with the list of titles required. They access the TVO FTP site and download the video proxies for the assets listed in the email.
The Captioning Service provider creates the required caption files following the CAB guidelines (Closed Captioning Standards and Protocol for Canadian English Language Television Programming Services) in the style provided in the email (Pop-On or Roll-Up). The captions are to be timed to the burnt in timecode in the video proxy provided by TVO.
Caption files are to be named the exact same as the video proxy and are case sensitive.
Once completed, the caption files are to be uploaded to the TVO FTP server. Caption files are to be delivered at or before the required date in the email sent by the EMMa coordinators.
The Captioning Service provider then emails TVO’s EMMa Coordinators letting them know which caption files are done and ready for pick up from the TVO FTP server.
For billing purposes two invoices are required. One for all captioning done for broadcast and a second for all captioning done for TVO websites to help meet the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).
