FCC Media Bureau Extends Waiver of TV Audio Crawl Rule

On April 8, 2026, the FCC’s Media Bureau extended its current waiver for TV stations to provide an audio crawl of certain emergency information.  The FCC’s rule adopted years ago requires television broadcasters to provide an aural representation of visual, nontextual emergency information that is displayed during non-newscast programming, such as radar maps or other graphics, on a secondary audio stream.

The rule had a compliance deadline of May 26, 2015 but the FCC has granted six successive waiver requests based on the unavailability of any technical compliance solution and the fact that the critical details of an emergency provided in graphic form are in most instances duplicative of information conveyed in textual crawls which are aurally described. This latest extension is for 18 months or earlier if the FCC acts on a pending rulemaking petition concerning the rule.