

Not to be Captain Obvious, but we'll spell it out anyway. Now that you know what open and closed captions are, it's pretty clear where they got the names. Why Are They Called Open and Closed Captions? The caption file can come in many different file formats and the viewer can choose whether to display text or not. Unlike closed captions, open captions are, by definition, permanently visible.Ĭlosed captions, on the other hand, are contained in a separate file. There's no OC button because, if you can turn them off, then they're not open captions anymore. Open captions are burned into the video file.

Well, that’s the thing! That is exactly the difference between open and closed captions! Clearly, that stands for Closed Captions, and by clicking it, you can turn captions on and off.īut how come there isn't a similar button that says OC? When you're playing a video stream on YouTube, for instance, you may have noticed a little button in the lower right of the screen that says CC. Let's talk about open and closed captioning. Open Captions (OC) vs Closed Captions (CC) Closed or open captions? Or wait, are those subtitles? Is there even a difference between the three? Let's get to the bottom of this mystery! So the solution is simple: adding captions. In terms of video stats, no matter how well you’re doing, a quarter of the entire population of the world sounds like a chunk of the audience that you don’t want to lose. Statistics reflect this reality too: videos that have captions hold the audience’s attention for longer – their watch time is on average 12% longer.Īnd how about another, very different fact?Īccording to The World Health Organization, by 2050, every fourth person on the planet will suffer from some degree of hearing loss. The thing is - whether they admit it or not, your audience, just like everyone else on this planet - use captions. It depends - we’ll get there in a moment. If you want to snack and watch videos, you need captions. Open and closed captions (CC) are an indispensable part of video content.
