Attention web series producers:

by Jamie Berke

There is an easy way to increase your viewership. Try closed captioning.

Closed captioning will enable millions of deaf and hard of hearing people in English speaking countries to watch. Plus, closed captioning makes your web series attractive to people learning English as a second language. And, closed captioning reinforces literacy skills for children learning to read.

If you are on YouTube, you have access to more affordable closed captioning. YouTube has an automatic captioning feature that you can enable. However, unless they are edited, YouTube automatic captions are not understandable. Therefore, you may want to consider taking advantage of the YouTube Ready Program at http://youtubeready.dcmp.org.



Captioning vendors participating in the YouTube Ready Program offer a range of affordable options. Options range from a simple timed text transcript that you can use with YouTube automatic captioning, to create accurate closed captions - to complete closed captioning services.

If you are not on YouTube you can still closed caption depending on what your video player is (at this time Vimeo does not support closed captioning) . There are hundreds of closed captioning service providers in the United States and Canada.

Again, for a web series producer on a tight budget, closed captioning is one of the easiest ways to get more bang for your buck.