Final Regulatory Assessment and Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis Final Rule - Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability by Public Accommodations - Movie Theaters; Movie Captioning and Audio Description

This section outlines the unit costs for the hardware and the individual devices necessary to provide closed movie captioning and audio description in auditoriums exhibiting digital movies.  The unit costs from the three main manufacturers of the equipment (Doremi Captiview, USL, and Sony) are taken directly from NATO’s public comments, which are based on its interviews with these companies.²³

In the Initial RA, the Department estimated the hardware and device costs by averaging the retail prices for the systems provided by Doremi Captiview and USL.  The Initial RA also noted that an additional captioning technology was commercially available, Sony’s Entertainment Access Glasses.  Because this was a relatively new and expensive technology, the Department excluded it from the average unit cost estimates in the Initial RA.  However, many commenters on the 2014 NPRM, including NATO, argued that Sony’s technology should be included in the unit cost estimates because the industry uses the technology—most notably, Regal Cinemas, the largest U.S. movie theater chain, uses this technology.

In response to comments, the Department has included Sony’s technology in the average unit cost estimates.  However, it is unlikely that the smallest movie theaters will purchase the Sony technology when less costly alternatives are available.²⁴  Therefore, Sony is now included in the average unit cost estimates in the Final RA but only for Miniplex, Multiplex, and Megaplex movie theaters.  The average unit cost estimate methodology for Single-Auditorium movie theaters remains the same and is calculated by averaging the retail prices of the Doremi Captiview and USL systems.

Section 3.4.1 through Section 3.4.4 outline the unit costs for all equipment necessary to provide closed movie captioning and audio description by manufacturer.  Section 3.4.5 presents the Department’s methodology for determining the average unit cost estimates used in the primary analysis.

The Initial RA estimated the costs of captioning and audio description hardware separately.  However, industry research indicates that if a movie theater is required to provide both closed movie captioning and audio description, it would likely purchase a hardware bundle currently offered by manufacturers. These hardware bundles provide hardware with the capability to provide both closed movie captioning and audio description at a lower cost than when purchasing the hardware separately.  The unit costs for all commercially-available captioning hardware systems are presented in Table 3-19.

Table 3-19 :  Captioning Hardware Unit Costs

Source: NATO, Statement of Position on RIN 1190-AA63, CRT Docket No. 126, Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability by Public Accommodations—Movie Theaters; Movie Captioning and Audio Description 23, available at http://www.regulations.gov/contentStreamer?documentId=DOJ-CRT-2014-0004-0401&attachmentNumber=4&disposition=attachment&contentType=pdf (last visited Sept. 12, 2016).

*This figure represents an average of the cost for movie theaters with Doremi servers ($822) and the cost for movie theaters without Doremi servers ($906).

The captioning hardware offered by Sony and USL also includes audio description functionality. Although Doremi Captiview hardware does not include this dual capability, it offers hardware transmitters for captioning and audio description in a bundled set at a discounted price.  Doremi offers the bundled hardware at two different prices depending on whether the movie theater uses Doremi servers for their projection system.  The $864 unit cost displayed in Table 3-19 is an average of the bundled hardware cost for movie theaters with Doremi servers ($822) and the bundled hardware cost for movie theaters without Doremi servers ($906).

As previously mentioned, it is unlikely that Single-Auditorium movie theaters with limited budgets would opt to purchase the Sony Entertainment Access system given the availability of cheaper alternatives.  Although the captioning hardware offered by Sony is less expensive than the other available hardware units, the captioning devices (Sony Entertainment Access Glasses) cost more than the captioning devices offered by other manufacturers (Section 3.4.3).  Therefore, the cost estimation assumes that the average captioning hardware unit cost is $1,118 for Single-Auditorium movie theaters and $912 for all other venue types (Section 3.4.5).

According to industry research, there are no additional audio description hardware costs for movie theaters purchasing USL or Sony’s captioning hardware.  As discussed in Section 3.4.1, these manufacturers’ captioning hardware units also have the capability to transmit audio description to movie patrons.  However, the Doremi Captiview audio description system (Fidelio) requires a programming station in addition to the bundled hardware. Generally, one programming station per movie theater complex is sufficient to provide audio description to patrons throughout the movie theater and costs $615.  The unit costs for all commercially-available audio description hardware systems are presented in Table 3-20.

Table 3-20 :  Additional Cost for Audio Description Hardware

Source: NATO, Statement of Position on RIN 1190-AA63, CRT Docket No. 126, Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability by Public Accommodations—Movie Theaters; Movie Captioning and Audio Description 23, available at http://www.regulations.gov/contentStreamer?documentId=DOJ-CRT-2014-0004-0401&attachmentNumber=4&disposition=attachment&contentType=pdf (last visited Sept. 12, 2016).

The unit costs in the table have been averaged to develop an estimate of the average audio description hardware unit cost per movie theater based on all available technology.  Because there are no additional audio description hardware costs if a movie theater purchases the USL or Sony system, the average audio description hardware unit cost for Single-Auditorium movie theaters is $308, and it is $205 for all other venue types.

The unit costs for captioning devices are presented in Table 3-21. The price of the captioning devices varies depending on the manufacturer and the device type.  Some manufacturers offer units that fit into movie theater seat cup holders, and others offer glasses worn by the patron.  Because USL offers both devices, the captioning device unit cost for USL is an average of the two devices offered: a cup holder device ($443) and the captioning glasses ($514).  For the Sony system, each captioning device requires both a receiver ($300) and a pair of glasses ($950) in order for the captions to appear on the glasses.

Table 3-21 : Captioning Device Unit Costs

Source: NATO, Statement of Position on RIN 1190-AA63, CRT Docket No. 126, Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability by Public Accommodations—Movie Theaters; Movie Captioning and Audio Description 23, available at http://www.regulations.gov/contentStreamer?documentId=DOJ-CRT-2014-0004-0401&attachmentNumber=4&disposition=attachment&contentType=pdf (last visited Sept. 12, 2016).

Although Sony has less expensive hardware costs, Table 24 demonstrates that the cost of a single Sony captioning device is more than double that of the other manufacturers.  Because the final rule’s captioning device scoping requirements require a Single-Auditorium movie theater to maintain four captioning devices, the difference in price between installing the Sony captioning system and installing another captioning system is significant.  The average captioning device unit cost when excluding Sony’s captioning device is $466 per individual device, and the Department uses this estimate as the average captioning device unit cost for Single-Auditorium movie theaters in the primary analysis.  The primary analysis assumes an average captioning device unit cost of $727 for Megaplex, Multiplex, and Miniplex movie theaters.

The individual devices required for audio description typically consist of a headset or headphones with a receiver that picks up the descriptive audio from a transmitting or programming station. Often, patrons can bring their own headphones that they are comfortable wearing. Under the final rule, however, movie theaters are required to provide headsets capable of receiving audio description for patrons’ use. The unit costs for all commercially-available audio description devices are presented in Table 3-22. The primary analysis assumes that the average unit cost for audio description devices is $95 for Single-Auditorium movie theaters and $163 for all other venue types.

Table 3-22 : Audio Description Device Unit Costs

Source: NATO, Statement of Position on RIN 1190-AA63, CRT Docket No. 126, Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability by Public Accommodations—Movie Theaters; Movie Captioning and Audio Description 23, available at http://www.regulations.gov/contentStreamer?documentId=DOJ-CRT-2014-0004-0401&attachmentNumber=4&disposition=attachment&contentType=pdf (last visited Sept. 12, 2016).

As previously mentioned, there are three main manufacturers of the captioning and audio description equipment (Doremi Captiview, USL, Sony).  The Final RA estimates the average unit costs of the hardware and the devices based on the retail prices of all currently-available equipment from the three manufacturers. Sony’s technology is primarily deployed by movie theaters operated by Regal Cinemas, the largest movie theater chain in the United Stated, and Sony’s technology is generally more expensive than that of the other manufacturers.  Therefore, the Final RA assumes that Single-Auditorium movie theaters operating on a limited budget will elect to purchase equipment from one of the less expensive manufacturers, such as USL or Doremi Captiview.  Larger venues (Megaplex, Multiplex and Miniplex movie theaters) are assumed to purchase from all technology providers.  The unit costs for all required equipment discussed in Section 3.4.1 through Section 3.4.4 are summarized by venue type in Table 3-23 below.

Table 3-23 : Summary of Equipment Unit Costs by Venue Type