Research Projects

In a country like India with 22 listed languages, the task of having an on-demand closed captioning system is particularly daunting. The world of video content is growing at the speed of light, which is interconnected with the growing importance of closed captions. By 2024, video will make up 82% of all consumer internet traffic, and the dependency on closed captions is growing. The global captioning and subtitling solution market is expected to grow from USD 263.4 million in 2019 to USD 350.1 million by 2025 at a CAGR of 7.4%. The Minsitry of Information and Broadcasting has drafted a set of rule for broadcasters to make television content more accessible to people with hearing impairments. Title “Accessibility Standards for Television Programmes for Hearing Impaired (Link)”. The rules would be notified under Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 if implemented. There are different codec standards available like SMIL, SRT, SAMI, TTML and DXFP, and the translated model should work across codecs and across broadcast systems, be it Channel based or OTT platform. Subtitles/ closed captioning are delivered with the media stream for end users’ consumption. TRAI has a mandate for the Broadcast & Media industry to display closed captioning for their channels.