VITAC Enables NBC Olympics to Provide Closed Captions During its Coverage of 2018 PyeongChang Games
STAMFORD, CONN. – NBC Olympics, a division of the NBC Sports Group, has selected VITAC Corporation to provide closed captioning services for its production of the XXIII Olympic Winter Games, which take place in PyeongChang, South Korea, from February 9 – February 25. The announcement was made today by Darryl Jefferson, Vice President Post Production & Digital Workflow, NBC Sports & Olympics, and P. Kevin Kilroy, VITAC’s Chief Executive Officer.
VITAC’s live closed captioning coverage includes captioning for all Winter Olympic programming across NBCUniversal networks, including NBC, NBCSN, CNBC, and the USA Network. The PyeongChang Games marks the 12th Olympics captioned by VITAC.
“NBC is pleased to once again partner with VITAC to provide this important element of our coverage to deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, as well as all others who rely on closed captioning when watching television,” said Jefferson. “The closed captioning services provided by VITAC will help make coverage of the PyeongChang Games accessible to even more people, and allow them to share in the thrill and excitement of the Olympics.”
“VITAC is thrilled to continue our decades-long commitment to captioning the Olympic Games,” said Kilroy. “Captioning the many hours of Olympic coverage across NBCUniversal’s channels is a demanding and very gratifying endeavor, and one that we take great pride in providing to the millions of people around the world who rely on our industry-leading captioning service.”
With millions of Americans benefitting from closed captioning for video programming, the excitement of 2018 PyeongChang Olympics will be brought to millions of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, those learning English as a second language, and elementary school children practicing reading skills. Captions also provide a valuable service to anyone in environments that preclude the use of sound – like noisy gyms and quiet offices.
The service VITAC provides is captured in real time by trained stenographers, transcribing audio at up to 240 words per minute. For many months in advance, they are working to create custom dictionaries to guide in the correct spelling of the names of over 2,000 athletes and 147 countries.
About NBC Olympics
A division of the NBC Sports Group, NBC Olympics is responsible for producing, programming and promoting NBCUniversal’s Olympic coverage. It is renowned for its unsurpassed Olympic heritage, award-winning production, and ability to aggregate the largest audiences in U.S. television history.
For more information on NBC Olympics’ coverage of the PyeongChang Olympics, please visit: https://nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com/
About VITAC
VITAC Corporation is the largest provider of realtime and offline captioning products and services in the United States. Responsible for captioning more than 500,000 live-program hours annually, VITAC also creates verbatim, precisely timed captions for 57,000 pre-recorded programs per year. VITAC’s customers include every major broadcasting company, most cable networks, program producers, corporations, educational institutions, and government agencies. Founded in 1986, VITAC employs hundreds of the most skilled and tenured captioning professionals in the industry. For more information, please visit vitac.com and follow the company on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.