Closed Captioning Services That Give You the Best of Both Worlds

Today there are various closed captioning services on the market and it can be confusing knowing which one to pick.

We will walk you through the characteristics that differentiate closed captioning providers, with the goal of finding a company that delivers both high-quality and low-cost captions.

99% Accuracy – The Only Way to Go

If you are investing in closed captions, the best choice is to select a company that can guarantee 99% accuracy.

This level of accuracy is necessary for deaf and hard of hearing audiences and for compliance with federal accessibility laws that affect countless organizations.

Additionally, 99% accuracy ensures that everyone who uses your captions will have an enjoyable experience.

Research has found that 80% of the people who use closed captions aren’t even hearing impaired. This is because captions solve many video viewing obstacles, such as silent auto-play, noisy environments, and low volume.

A common, inexpensive way to generate closed captions is ASR (automatic speech recognition). While cheap or even free, this can only max out at about 70% accuracy. Services such as YouTube auto-captions and Facebook captions are not sufficient for accessibility compliance.

Don’t be tempted by offers of 95% either. While 95% usually represents a solid A, in terms of FCC, CVAA, or ADA compliance, it is unacceptable.

U.S. and International Workforce — Efficiency at Its Finest

U.S. transcriptionists are essential for hitting that 99% accuracy mark. Native English speakers offer their understanding of cultural and linguistic nuances, with consistent knowledge of spelling, grammar, and common slang terms.

On the other hand, international transcriptionists are essential for subtitle accuracy. For example, you would want a high-quality French transcription of a native French language video.

Closed captioning services that use a mixed workforce offer the best total package for captions and subtitles, giving you the best of both worlds.

Machine and Human Hybrid — No Not a Cyborg

A mix of machine processing and human editing is the best way to ensure fast, low cost, and accurate captioning.

Closed captioning providers who rely solely on machines to generate their captions can do it quickly and cheaply, but they will not be able to meet 99% accuracy. Those who rely too heavily on humans will be very expensive.

By mixing technology and expert human transcriptionists, closed captioning services can deliver their customers both low prices and high accuracy.

Narrowing Down the Closed Captioning Providers List Even More

Looking for more than just captions?

If you are looking for additional services beyond captioning, such as translation, subtitles, tags, and video intelligence for SEO, you can rule out closed captioning providers that solely deliver captions.

Looking for your captions to integrate into a video platform?

If you want your captions to seamlessly integrate into your video platform, you can rule out companies that simply send you the captioning file.

Want to edit the captions yourself?

If you know that the videos you have will need your magic touch, you can rule out companies that don’t provide a robust customer edit feature.

Ready to Get the Best of Both Worlds?

You can view a breakdown of cielo24’s unique services here and request a quote here.

Need to convince anyone about the importance of captioning and awesome benefits of translation and video intelligence? Feel free to download any of our ebooks!