History MediaNotes / ClosedCaptioning

* Almost all captioning is white-on-black and uses [[UsefulNotes/{{Fonts}} sans-serif fonts]]. Occasionally, rare usage will appear with text in green, yellow, red, or cyan instead of white. This is mostly limited to music videos and "this program was captioned by" plugs, although the BBC has been experimenting with using different text colours to denote different speakers.

* The American closed caption signal can be recorded off-air onto videocassettes. Likewise, closed captioning can be included on pre-recorded tapes, or on [=DVDs=] as an alternative to regular DVD subtitling. HDMI, however, doesn't pass through captions, so in that case captions have to be set up via the viewer's form of set-top box to be viewable, while UsefulNotes/BluRay discs must be viewed with studio subtitles rather than captions.

Unlike U.S. closed captioning, the analogue teletext signal in Britain could ''not'' be recorded on home video unless a (usually pricey) UsefulNotes/{{Teletext}}-capable VCR was used. All analogue TV ceased in Britain by the end of 2012. Digital text uses the same subtitling conventions, and can be recorded. What you ''can't'' do is watch a programme with subtitles and record it without, unless you're recording it from a different source[[note]]As a matter of fact, since you're practically recording from the TV, changing the channel will also ruin the recording[[/note]].

For the equivalent aid for people with sight problems, see UsefulNotes/AudioDescription.

In the American/Canadian standard, there are also four closed captioning "channels" available, which allows for secondary captions in different languages (usually Spanish in the United States, or English on the Spanish networks such as Creator/{{Univision}} and {{Telemundo}}, and French in Canada); these are usually seen on the "[=CC3=]" caption channel.

** Some Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox movies have their opening logo (the stacked "20th Century Fox" with searchlights) captioned, in which the captioning reads "[LIVELY {{FANFARE}}]" "[FANFARE CONTINUES]" then with the last four notes, "[FANFARE ENDS]".