ACCESS COMMITTEE REACHES CONSENSUS ON IFE

November 23, 2016

We are pleased to report that the ACCESS Committee reached consensus on In-Flight Entertainment on November 22nd.   With consensus being reached on this topic, we expect a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to be issued sometime in 2017 and a Final Rule to be issued in 2018.  Some of the relevant requirements include:

1. IFE Hardware/Software

• Covered carriers must ensure that any IFE system installed on a newly delivered aircraft and any newly-installed IFE system on an existing aircraft is capable of supporting closed captions in either fixed image (e.g., bitmap format) or as user-customizable text after the effective date of the final rule. 
• Covered carriers must ensure that any IFE system installed on a newly delivered aircraft, and any newly-installed IFE system on an existing aircraft, is capable of supporting closed captions in user-customizable text, provided that UCC capability can be achieved through airline customer software upgrades to current hardware systems from the airline’s existing supplier(s) for each particular aircraft without requiring other changes to the IFE system hardware, seat(s) and/or layout of passenger areas (“LOPA”) of the relevant aircraft.
• If covered carrier’s aircraft provide a user interface to connect to the Internet (e.g., a user interface for an Internet service provider (ISP) such as Gogo), on supported devices beginning 120 days from the effective date of the final rule, carriers must, whenever an aircraft undergoes a WiFi system software upgrade in the normal course of business, install any software upgrade needed to ensure that the user interface to connect to the Internet on that aircraft is accessible. Carriers must ensure that user interfaces to connect to the Internet on all aircraft in your fleet are accessible no later than 2 years after the effective date of the final rule. 
• Covered carriers offering audio/video on demand (AVOD) seatback in-flight entertainment (not including distributed IFE) on a flight and in a particular cabin or class of service through a system that does not support closed-captioning in either fixed image or user-customizable format must, three years after the effective date of the final rule, either:  (a) provide carrier-supplied PEDs offering comparable content (the number of PEDs should be in sufficient numbers to satisfy reasonably foreseeable demand by qualified individuals with disabilities), (b) offer comparable content streamed wirelessly from an airline server to passenger-supplied PEDs; or (c) offer access to WiFi streaming via passenger supplied PEDs of internet entertainment content on the same terms offered to other passengers on passenger-supplied PEDs.  Content for carrier-supplied PEDs may be either pre-loaded or streamed wirelessly from an airline server.  The content that a carrier streams to passenger-supplied PEDs as described in option (b) shall be comparable to content displayed through the inaccessible IFE system.
• Covered carriers may apply for an exemption from the requirements in this section by submitting to DoT a written demonstration that compliance is not “achievable.” 
• Nothing in the rule shall require a carrier to offer IFE to its passengers; however if IFE is offered it must be compliant. 

2. IFE Content 

• “Covered content” means English-language theatrical movies and cached or stored English-language (for programs where the original soundtrack language is English) and Spanish-language (for programs where the original soundtrack language is Spanish) video programming licensed by the content owner that have been produced more than 9 months after the effective date of the final rule, and displayed with closed-captions and/or audio description in theaters in the United States or on television in the United States via a broadcast station or pay TV provider (e.g., cable, satellite).
• Beginning 9 months after the effective date of the rule, for covered content that the carriers license for display on aircraft seatback IFE and cache on an onboard server, covered carriers shall request that their content provider(s) supply 100 percent of covered IFE content in closed-caption and audio-described versions, and shall obtain such covered IFE content with closed captions and audio-descriptions if available in a format that is suitable, based on widely accepted industry standards, for display on the carrier’s particular IFE systems for the carrier’s particular aircraft.
• Carriers must prepare a list each month of all the movies and video programming they licensed in the preceding month.  The lists must indicate whether the content is available to airline passengers in closed-captioned and/or audio described format. 
• By the last Monday in January of each year, carriers must submit an annual report to DOT summarizing their accessible IFE content during the prior calendar year.
• Covered carriers shall disclose on their websites, and upon request through call centers, clear information on their accessible IFE options to passengers in advance of travel.  

 

If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com, 202-659-6622) or Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com, 202-659-6665).

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