Best Closed Captioning Services
Closed captioning services providers give visual aid to videos in the form of subtitles, integrating transcribed text from dialogue and sounds as they happen. Closed captioning was originally designed to help the hearing impaired understand the spoken words and music happening on television shows and movies, but the technology is also used in different situations where it would benefit audiences that are not necessarily hearing impaired. For example, closed captioning can provide dialogue clarification and contextual details of a video.
Professional closed captioners offer services for real-time (live broadcast) and/or prerecorded video. Real-time closed captioning involves the immediate transcription of dialogue on talk shows, speeches, sporting events, and other programs. Prerecorded or offline closed captioning is designed for movies, television shows, games, and other media without a live element. Closed captioning services for YouTube and other web streaming platforms can involve both types of captioning, and as the variety of live streaming programs increases, so does the need for real-time closed captioning.
Creative departments, production teams, and marketing teams can utilize closed captioning services to ensure maximum comprehension and engagement with videos. Many closed captioning providers can also assist with subtitles, a form of localization services which translates dialogue and text into the viewer’s preferred language. Businesses can create closed captioning and subtitles in-house with a variety of video software tools on the market. Depending on the demands of a certain project, businesses may consider outsourced transcription services or other translation services. A number of language-based agencies provide a range of services related to translation as opposed to one service.
To qualify for inclusion in the Closed Captioning Services category, a services provider must:
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We help our customers create compliant, accessible, and engaging videos, offering a range of services including closed captioning, live captioning, audio description, and translation. We serve more th
- Higher Education
- Education Management
- 38% Mid-Market
- 32% Enterprise
- 31% Small-Business
Videolinq is a leader in adding automated closed captioning to video, offering an affordable and efficient way to create captions, subtitles, and transcripts for live broadcasts streamed to social med
- Overview
- Software Expertise
- Pros and Cons
- Marketing and Advertising
- E-Learning
- 82% Small-Business
- 15% Mid-Market
- 3% Enterprise
- Captions & Subtitles
- Instant Transcripts
- Video Distribution
Wordly provides live AI translation, captioning, transcription, and interpretation at in-person, virtual, and hybrid meetings and events. Translate speakers into audio and captions for 60+ languages w
- Events Services
- Non-Profit Organization Management
- 57% Small-Business
- 33% Mid-Market
- 7% Enterprise
Adobe Closed Captioning allows users to display real-time captioning, line-by-line or word-by-word, from professional captioning services or in-meeting captioners.
- 53% Small-Business
- 27% Mid-Market
- 20% Enterprise
Echo Labs is a cutting edge captioning platform built for higher education. We believe that proactive accessibility should be the default in every institution across the country, and that starts with
- Higher Education
- 50% Mid-Market
- 30% Small-Business
- 10% Enterprise
- Captions and Transcripts
- LMS and VMS Integrations
- English, Spanish, French
SyncWords is at the forefront of captioning and subtitling automation for both real-time and pre-recorded content. We bring together experts from the broadcast, machine learning, and web design fields
- Events Services
- Media Production
- 60% Small-Business
- 24% Mid-Market
- 12% Enterprise
CaptioningStar is one of the best end-to-end Accessibility service provider in the industry, delivering a comprehensive set of accessibility features for people with disabilities since 2007. We strict
- 40% Mid-Market
- 40% Small-Business
- Closed captioning
- Subtitling-multi-language
- Audio Description
Welcome to Aberdeen Broadcast Services, a trusted leader in closed captioning and broadcast solutions for churches, television stations, universities, city municipalities, Fortune 500 companies, and o
- Overview
- Software Expertise
- 67% Small-Business
- Closed Captioning
- ASR Transcription
- CART Services
20/20 Captioning and Interpreting provides live captioning, CART and ASL interpreting services to businesses, universities and individuals around the country and around the world. We provide live cap
- 100% Enterprise
Award winning, innovative and first of its kind, AccessLOOP is a pioneering tool in delivering real-time captions and sign language to any rtmp streaming service. AccessLOOP is passionate about reduci
- 100% Small-Business
Dotsub is a browser-based platform that is used for subtitling & translating online videos.
- 100% Small-Business
- 100% Mid-Market
Milestone Localization is an ISO 17100 and ISO 9001-certified translation agency. We partner with companies to help them communicate across cultures and succeed globally. We have offices in the UK
- Overview
- Software Expertise
- 60% Small-Business
- 20% Mid-Market
- Translation
- Localization
- Medical Translation
VITAC, which serves as Verbit's media arm, is North America’s leading provider of closed captioning, subtitling, transcription and audio description. VITAC is an accessibility and captioning partner o
- 100% Mid-Market
Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) offers immediate, verbatim, streaming voice-to-text translation at events, conferences, classes, public hearings and other events. CART/remote CART pro
CapMate – Captions QC & Correction platform automatically identifies issues in Captions/Subtitles and allows users to perform auto correction and export the rectified captions. CapMate ensure tha
Learn More About Closed Captioning Services
What are Closed Captioning Services?
There are two types of captioning: open and closed. Open captioning refers to captions that are always in view and cannot be disabled, while closed captioning allows viewers to toggle captions on or off. Additionally, closed captioning is often confused with general subtitles. While they both serve the same objective, closed captioning specifically caters to those that require subtitles on the media they’re viewing. Subtitles, on the other hand, are meant to be used on an as-needed basis in visual media, such as translating dialogue in a different language in a movie.
Why Use Closed Captioning Services?
All viewers have much to gain from closed captioning, but businesses that implement closed captioning reap many benefits, as well.
Accessibility — Making your content accessible enables more people to view it. Those that are hard of hearing greatly benefit from closed captioning and are able to properly experience the content. Closed captioning also helps in situations where a viewer is in a loud environment and cannot hear the content to its fullest. Additionally, language learners use closed captioning for easier language comprehension.
SEO Ranking — Since search engines cannot be optimized for videos, text allows videos to be highly ranked in popular search engines if the proper keywords are used.
Increased Comprehension — With the advantage of hearing a video and reading the captions, viewers have an increased sense of what the video is about, and their attention is held longer due to the various forms of communication present within the content.
Boosted Views — It’s not uncommon for viewers to scroll through their mobile device with their sound off. Having captions increases viewership due to the approachability of the video compared to a video without captions.
Who Uses Closed Captioning Services?
Closed captioning is useful for a multitude of industries that incorporate visual content into their marketing or branding.
Production Teams — Content teams that work for news stations, TV shows, and other video production careers benefit from using closed captioning services, since it’s a required task that can be easily outsourced, allowing these teams to focus on other production-related tasks.
Marketing Teams — Marketing teams that use video production in their efforts benefit from outsourced closed captioning to capture the attention of a wider audience.
Creative Departments — Creative teams that create visual media for websites, client deliverables, and more benefit from implementing closed captioning to reach a larger target audience.
Kinds of Closed Captioning Services
Real-Time Captioning — Real-time captioning involves captioning live audio. Live TV broadcasts notably use real-time closed captioning.
Prerecorded Captioning — Prerecorded captioning involves a similar process to real-time captioning without the need to transcribe dialogue live.
Closed Captioning Services Features
Caption Customization — Depending on the needs of the client, providers can adjust the closed captioning font color, size, and style.
Transcript Download — Clients have the ability to read and download the closed captioning of an entire piece of content.
Project Management — To ensure deadlines are met and quality is reached, providers can offer project updates and concerns to clients in an effort to stay on track and remedy project issues.
Compliance — Providers ensure closed captioning deliverables follow Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, Federal Communications Commission best practices, and other related regulations.
Potential Issues with Closed Captioning Services
Compliance issues — While many providers ensure their services remain up to date with various rules and regulations, it’s possible for rules to be missed or forgotten due to the vast amount of regulations to follow. It’s important to collaborate and communicate with providers to ensure compliance mistakes are fixed.
