BILL NUMBER: S9888
SPONSOR: FERNANDEZ
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the general business law, in relation to requiring
certain motion picture theaters to provide scheduled showings of motion
pictures with open motion picture captioning
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
Requires motion picture theaters offering more than ten motion picture
showings per week to provide open motion picture captioning for a speci-
fied number of showings and establishes civil penalties for motion
picture theaters that fail to comply. This bill expands a requirement
for open motion picture captioning in New York City to the rest of the
State to promote accessibility in motion picture theaters for the deaf
and hard of hearing.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 adds a new article 45 to the general business law to require
that motion picture theaters that offer more than ten motion picture
showings per week provide a certain number of scheduled showings with
open captioning. Covered theaters must ensure half of scheduled showings
with open captioning occur during peak motion picture attendance hours.
Covered motion picture theaters that violate any provisions of this
article shall be subject to a civil penalty up to one hundred dollars
for the first violation and up to five hundred dollars for each subse-
quent violation.
Section 2 provides that the bill shall take effect on the one hundred
and twentieth day after it shall have become law.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Currently, federal regulations require movie theaters to provide indi-
vidual viewing devices that display dialogue in writing as closed
captions, visible only to patrons with the viewing devices. While this
provides deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans some access to cinema, these
closed-captioning devices can be distracting for users. Of particular
concern, movie theaters fail to properly maintain working devices, and
users recount frequent battery outages and malfunctions. As a result of
these difficulties, movie theaters are not fully accessible or comforta-
ble environments for the deaf and hard of hearing community.
To address these concerns, jurisdictions such as Hawaii and New York
City now mandate a minimum of open caption motion picture showings.
Similar legislation is pending in many other states and cities, includ-
ing Maryland, Virginia, Vermont, and Washington D.C. In contrast to
closed captions, open captions provide text at the bottom of the screen
that is visible to all viewers in the theater. While open captions
particularly serve the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, they benefit
many others, including English language learners. Younger Americans in
particular have expressed a preference for captioned media. A 2023
survey revealed that 63% of adults under 30 prefer watching captioned
media (YouGov). In a testament to the popularity of open caption show-
ings, some large movie theaters have begun to offer screenings without a
legal mandate. AMC Theaters, for instance, offers certain open caption
showings at 240 of its locations. This bill, however, would ensure deaf,
hard-of-hearing, and multilingual New Yorkers can enjoy movie theaters,
no matter where they live in the state.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2025: S2269 (Hoylman-Sigal)
2024: S8961 (Hoylman-Sigal)
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
TBD
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect the one hundred twentieth day after it shall
have become law.