Captions Then and Now #WordsWorthWatchingNCI

Thanks for checking back in during Words Worth Watching Week!

Do you have an interest in NCI and captioning history? We have an incredibly interesting look into how both have evolved over the decades!

From the 1970s, NCI has used innovation and dedication to lead the way in providing high-quality services to viewers and ground-breaking technologies to the content providers. These technological developments have enabled the closed captioning industry to flourish, but it’s our training procedures and practices that have yielded the benchmark-leading group of professionals actually responsible for producing #WordsWorthWatching!

2000s

First real-time Spanish captioning with mixed case and accent marks: Deportes (CNN en Español).

NCI explores Voice Writing as a viable captioning method.

First live broadcast captioned by Voice Writing: C-Span.

First live broadcast captioned by Spanish Voice Writing: KWHY.

NCI captions Sesame Street for the 30th year.

NCI introduces Recapd, a web-based system for displaying live captioning.

NCI was selected to become the sole closed captioning vendor for Hearst Television, one of the most recognized and premier companies in the industry.

NCI played a leading role in both writing and defining the best practices related to FCC closed captioning quality standards.

NCI is proud to support Bloomberg as it expands its global news coverage to Spanish-speaking countries around the world.

NCI develops its automated speech recognition (ASR) service, CaptionSentry.

NCI turns 40!

NCI introduced AI powered machine translation for live captioning in order to localize live news and sporting events.

NCI commemorates the 40th anniversary of the very first airing of closed captions on television.

NCI expands its online and live streaming captioning services to provide accessibility to educational entities, corporations, and events around the globe.

1990s

First Congressional floor proceedings: U.S. House of Representatives.

First home video service in Europe: England.

First inter-continentally-televised event: Bill Clinton’s presidential inauguration, U.S. and England.

1980s

First closed-captioned programs: The ABC Sunday Night Movie (ABC), Disney's Wonderful World (NBC), and Masterpiece Theatre (PBS) air on March 16. First children’s program: 3-2-1 Contact (PBS). First commercial: IBM.

First home videos: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The China Syndrome, and Chapter Two (RCA/Columbia House Home Video). First pay cable series: Bizarre (Showtime).

NCI develops real-time captioning. First live sports event: The Sugar Bowl. First live special: The Academy Awards. First national newscast: World News Tonight (ABC).